http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-publications/business-jet-traveler/october-2008
enCessna Citation CJ3http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/cessna-citation-cj3
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/cessna-cj3-6_flatnew.jpg?itok=mk8rMnz3" width="100" height="67" alt="Cessna&#039;s CJ3 offers long-range and a spacious cabin." title="Cessna&#039;s CJ3 offers long-range and a spacious cabin." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>Multiple strengths make it the most popular model in the CJ series.</strong></p>
<p>Cessna’s entire line of Citation CJ light jets has remained popular over the years. Offering varying degrees of stretch of the same diameter fuselage, the models share certain characteristics. But talk to CJ owners and it quickly becomes apparent that one variant stands out above its siblings as the perfect combination of range, performance and operating economics: the seven- to nine-passenger CJ3, which first entered service in 2004.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<p>“It is one of Cessna’s best-built light jets,” enthuses Alex Wilcox, CEO of&nbsp; JetSuite, a charter operator based in Irvine, California. The company acquired eight used CJ3s less than two years ago and since then has been flying each one an average of 80 hours per month. JetSuite also operates 12 Embraer Phenom 100s, but it found that some of its customers wanted more passenger capacity and longer range.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“We needed a plane with the legs to get from Teterboro [New Jersey] to West Palm Beach [Florida],” explains Wilcox. So JetSuite acquired the CJ3s, formerly operated by Cessna’s now-defunct CitationAir, and gave them new paint and a refreshed interior. Among the upgrades: new upholstery, carpet, LED lighting, a redesigned beverage cabinet, stowable life rafts and the Gogo Biz ATG 5000 Internet system. JetSuite alsoreplaced the airstair door with a more substantial one.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It’s not just the range—up to 1,875 nautical miles, with reserves—that makes the CJ3 a winner in the light-jet category, according to Wilcox. The Williams International FJ44-3A engines (2,820 pounds of thrust each, 4,000 hours between overhauls) give the airplane enough blow to often (depending on load) climb directly to its service ceiling of 45,000 feet.</p>
<p>“Once we get up there, we cruise a little slower than the airliners, but we also are above them by 5,000 to 7,000 feet,” Wilcox says. “We’re not in anybody’s way, nobody is in our way, it is smoother air, and you get more direct routings [from air-traffic control] because there isn’t a whole lot of traffic up there.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>The CJ3 delivers good operating economics on short or long routes. “It’s a terrific climber,” Wilcox says. “You can go from Teterboro direct to Martha’s Vineyard or direct to Anguilla and the economics still make sense.”</p>
<p>Wilcox adds that his pilots love the airplane’s short-runway performance and fast climbs, even off the pavement at high altitudes and hottemperatures in places like Aspen, Colorado. The CJ3 climbs initially at a maximum rate of nearly 4,500 feet per minute. At maximum takeoff weight it can reach 45,000 feet in just 27 minutes.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It has a top speed of 417 knots, but that starts to bleed off a little as you go above airliner altitudes in the mid to high thirties. That said, it’s still plenty fast for a light jet and pilots regularly report speeds above the numbers Cessna publishes for altitudes and conditions. And it carries a respectable load—780 pounds of passengers and their stuff—with full fuel.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the cockpit, the highly capable Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics accommodate XM satellite weather, which allows pilots to view conditions anywhere in the country. However, the avionics file server isn’t powerful enough to legally qualify the airplane solely with electronic navigation charts that are loaded into the system. You need a backup. Given the cramped cockpit, pilots are best advised to bring alonga tablet device—also known as an electronic flight bag—for this purpose, as opposed to crumpling up a bunch of paper charts. This is particularly true for operators who fly with two pilots. JetSuite added a second navigation unit and a UHF radio to the instrument panel, the latter to facilitate communication on overwater flights.&nbsp;</p>
<p align="center">*****</p>
<p><strong>For an airplane in this category,</strong> the six reclining single executive seats are comfortable and the passenger cabin is relatively quiet. All CJ3 cabins are outfitted with the first four seats in a facing club-four layout followed by two forward-facing seats with less legroom—great for kids, shorter passengers and “stuff shelves.”</p>
<p>You can also get the CJ3 configured with an optional fixed-position single side-facing seat opposite the entry door and someone can straponto the toilet. So if you fly the CJ3 single pilot, as many operators do, you could conceivably crowd nine passengers into it. However, most CJ3s take off with two to three passengers and one or two pilots.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The aft lav features the bane of most light jets, the dreaded blue-water chemical toilet. It isn’t externally serviceable, which means some lucky contestant gets to walk it off the airplane. “I suspect that some of our pilots are tipping the line-service guys to clean the lav for them,” Wilcox jokes.</p>
<p>He adds that the cabin heating and cooling system has worked well on JetSuite’s CJ3s, particularly since Cessna came out with a better compressor for it. However, he notes that the pilots’ feet can get a little chilled on long flights. And while the cabin is comfortable overall, Wilcox says that the main cabin door seals can be a bit of a problem and sometimes make noise at altitude. He stresses that this isn’t a safety concern but that it’s “definitely a big issue and Cessna needs to redesign them.”</p>
<p>The various baggage compartments add up to 65 cubic feet. The 50-cubic-foot aft compartment is big enough for a set of skis.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Stevens Aviation—which has locations in Dayton, Ohio; Denver; Greenville, South Carolina; and Nashville—provides most of the service for JetSuite’s CJ3s. Wilcox says Stevens’s crew know the model as well as anyone who works on it, including the technicians at Cessna-owned service centers.&nbsp;</p>
<p>To take the bite out of unscheduled maintenance, JetSuite subscribes to Cessna’s Pro Parts spare/replacement parts plan and Williams’s hourly engine-support programs. Posting a dispatch rate of 97 to 98 percent, JetSuite’s CJ3s have good reliability, but “not as good at the Phenoms,” Wilcox says.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the CJ3 holds its value well, with a 10-year-old model selling for an average of $4.1 million, according to the aircraft pricing service Vref. That’s much better than anything else in class and is just one reason why Cessna sold 460 of them over a decade.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Cessna plans to keep making them for a while. Last year it unveiled the $8.43 million CJ3+, featuring a restyled cockpit with touchscreen avionics and an updated passenger cabin. And why not? When it comes to Citation CJs, the CJ3 is the favorite son.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></p>
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<p><a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtonline.com">Mark Huber</a> is a private pilot with experience in more than 50 aircraft models.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pdf field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/802abcj3statsjune15bjt_sheet1.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=58057" title="802abcj3statsjune15bjt_sheet1.pdf">CJ3 Economics and Performance Specs</a></span></div><div class="field-item odd"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/comparison_fairmarketvalue.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=155961" title="comparison_fairmarketvalue.pdf">CJ3 Compared with Other Aircraft and Fair Market Value</a></span></div></div></div>Sun, 14 Jun 2015 10:01:18 +0000Mark Huber5901 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/cessna-citation-cj3#commentsZipping over the treetopshttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/zipping-over-the-treetops
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/zipline-lead.jpg?itok=N6dhd4yC" width="100" height="50" alt="Ziplining provides stunning views in all seasons. (Photo: The Gorge Zipline)" title="Ziplining provides stunning views in all seasons. (Photo: The Gorge Zipline)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>Gravity enables a phenomenal sport that can give you a bird's-eye view of nature.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>In any season, few Appalachian vistas can rival the views from the mile-high Blue Ridge Parkway, which connects Virginia’s Shenandoah highlands with North Carolina’s Great Smokies. When I visited, the freshly unfurled leaves of oaks and maples were green. The flowering tulip poplars appeared yellowish-green. Pollen fluff floated on air through the slanting sun. In the distance, bluish layers of the mountainsides were festooned with flowering white dogwood and blooming pink redbud.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Now a phenomenal and fast-growing sport called “zip-lining” allows the adventurous among us to experience this sort of splendor from the treetops. You can sail across mountain valleys and down into rocky river gorges. Then, if you’d like, you can jump in a raft and sail down awhitewater river.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ziplining is essentially a gravity-propelled activity. Participants typically arrive, often by off-road vehicle, at a high-elevation outpost. There, you don a safety helmet and thick leather gloves and, in a full-body harness, are attached to a freely moving pulley on a stainless-steel cable mounted on an incline. When all is secure you launch yourself by “zipping” off the deck of the outpost. Gravity does the rest. A combination of the natural sag in the cable and a braking system allows you to slow and stop along the zipline course.</p>
<p>“We employ a hands-free braking system,” says Sara Bell, who operates the steepest and fastest canopy tour in America on North Carolina’sGreen River Gorge. “It’s absolutely safe and allows our guests to enjoy the spectacular views without fear or anxiety.” The “flight,” as it is called, starts on the rim of the gorge. From there by means of 11 cables you zip from platform to platform through primeval deciduous woods with the highest floral and faunal biodiversity in the eastern U.S. Along the way you also experience three free-fall rappels and cross asky bridge. The thrilling three-hour descent is 1,100 feet—so steep a drop that at the right time of year the vegetation is still in spring greenery at the top and full summer growth at the bottom. Watch below for white-tailed deer and black bears.</p>
<p>At peak season the Gorge Zipline Canopy Adventure employs 45 rangers who train, assist and accompany guests. When the operation started in 2013, approximately 6,000 individuals enjoyed the flight; last year 14,000 made the launch. Though the common notion is that ziplining is for the young, Sara Bell says that she is seeing more and more folks in their 50s and 60s adding the adventure to their bucket lists.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Another reliable zipline operator started in 1971 with the first guided whitewater rafting trips in the Southeast. Called Adventure America Zipline Tours, it now offers combination zipline canopy/whitewater adventures on and around several of the South’s most beautiful mountain watersheds: North Carolina’s Nantahala River, Tennessee’s Pigeon and Ocoee rivers, and South Carolina’s Chattooga River. More than 20,000 guests signed on with this outfit last year.</p>
<p>“We want to introduce as many people as possible to what we love in nature while keeping responsible environmental standards,” says Adventure America’s Trey Barnett.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Back in 1971, when the outfitter pumped up its first raft, poet James Dickey was autographing copies of his new novel. It was titled </span><i style="line-height: 1.538em;">Deliverance</i><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">. A year later, filming began on the Chattooga River as a stand-in for the fictitious Cahulawassee. Now you can raft the rushing river of movie fame and zipline its piney ridge on the same day.</span></p>
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<p><strong>IF YOU WANT TO GO</strong></p>
<p>The Gorge Zipline and Canopy Adventure charges $95 per person for a half-day experience at North Carolina’s Green River Gorge. The company also offers springtime rafting trips on the Green River. Info: <a href="http://www.thegorgezipline.com">thegorgezipline.com</a>, <a href="mailto:reservations@thegorgezipline.com">reservations@thegorgezipline.com,</a> (855) 749-2500.&nbsp;</p>
<p>To arrange a trip with Adventure America Zipline Tours, contact South Carolina’s Wildwater Adventures Center. The price is $130 per person for a combination Chattooga Ridge canopy tour and Chattooga River whitewater raft trip; kayaking instruction and rentals are also available, as is overnight lodging in deluxe cottages and yurts. Info: <a href="http://www.wildwaterrafting.com">wildwaterrafting.com</a>, (866) 319-8870.</p>
<p>Business jet travelers can fly into Asheville [North Carolina] Regional Airport, which has an 8,000-foot runway.</p>
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<p><a href="mailto:tpero@bjtonline.com">Thomas R. Pero</a> is publisher of Wild River Press and the author of two books about fly fishing.&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:43:58 +0000Thomas R. Pero5806 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/zipping-over-the-treetops#commentsNew Jet Preview: Dassault Falcon's 5Xhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/new-jet-preview-dassault-falcons-5x
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/falcon5xlead_0.jpg?itok=Ag5PYIB_" width="100" height="50" alt="Dassault revealed the $45 million Falcon 5X in late 2013. The first aircraft will fly this year and certification is likely in 2017." title="Dassault revealed the $45 million Falcon 5X in late 2013. The first aircraft will fly this year and certification is likely in 2017." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>This large-cabin model, which will likely be certified in 2017, sets new standards for comfort and performance.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/inside-the-dassault-falcon-5x-cabin-0"><em>Watch BJT's video preview of the Falcon 5X.</em></a></p>
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<p>Lots of products boast of being the biggest and most advanced, but Dassault’s new large-cabin 5X twinjet really delivers on those claims. Among other things, it changes the standard for cabin comfort, aircraft performance and ease of maintenance. And it provides an impressive template for follow-on aircraft.&nbsp;</p>
<p>After nearly six years of rumors, Dassault revealed the $45 million aircraft in late 2013. The first 5X will fly this year and certification will likely occur in 2017.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The jet’s fuselage diameter is 8.86 feet—a bit larger than that of the 8X, which is still under development and much larger than the fuselage on past models. The new tube yields six and a half feet of headroom and volume of 1,766 cubic feet, making the 5X even larger than the company’s current flagship, the trijet 7X, or its stretched 8X cousin. Available configurations include seating for 12 passengers.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Dassault claims that the aircraft will be 50 percent more fuel efficient and cost 30 percent less to operate than competing models from other manufacturers. It will feature fly-by-wire controls with sidesticks and new Snecma Silvercrest engines (11,450 pounds of thrust each). The Falcon EASy avionics suite, based on Honeywell Primus Epic platfrom, includes dual heads-up displays with synthetic and enhanced vision information. The large cockpit incorporates a 32 percent larger windshield than the one on the 7X as well as pilot seats that recline 130 degrees, allowing one crewmember to rest while the other flies. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The 5X has a maximum takeoff weight of 69,600 pounds and a range of 5,200 nautical miles, which equates to 11 hours, 30 minutes in the air. It can take off from relatively short, 5,000-foot runways and touch down fairly slowly with an approach speed of just 105 knots.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It can do this without sacrificing high-speed cruise performance. The 5X has a top speed of Mach 0.9—around 600 miles per hour at cruise altitude. Other plusses include much longer maintenance intervals for inspections and component replacement than previous Falcons&nbsp;have had; an all-new wing that incorporates a fresh winglet design; leading-edge slats that enable slower approach speeds to shorter runways; andflaperons, which are typically found only on military aircraft.</p>
<p>The flaperons save weight, provide better control and smooth out turbulence by combining flaps and ailerons into a single control surface: flaps deploy to increase lift at low speeds while ailerons regulate bank and roll. Dassault has traditionally been a trailblazer among bizjet makers in adapting military technology such as 3D computer design, sidesticks and fly-by-wire controls.&nbsp;</p>
<p>These innovations come naturally, as the company also builds the highly successful line of Rafale and Mirage jet fighters. (Many of the engineers who designed those airplanes also worked on the 5X.) Dassault has a reputation for taking airframe aerodynamic optimization to the next level and almost an obsession with trimming weight out of the final product. The Falcon 5X continues this tradition.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For passengers, not only does the 5X provide more space, it also offers brighter space. The windows are 30 percent larger than on the 7X.The entryway can be filled with natural light, courtesy of an electronically dimmable “Zenith window” skylight from Vision Systems above the galley aisle. The “smart glass” in the skylight can adjust tint in virtually any degree to modulate the amount of incoming light and solar heating.</p>
<p>The 5X’s pressurization system will leave passengers refreshed. The cabin altitude is only 3,900 feet while the airplane cruises at 41,000 feet; and it’s just 6,000 feet at the 5X’s service ceiling of 51,000 feet.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The cabin, which features the Falcon HD inflight-entertainment system will be available with various layouts and with seats than can be fully reclined to produce sleeping areas for up to six passengers. The pressurized 155-cubic-foot main baggage area is accessible through the aft lavatory, providing dressing space in flight. The single executive seats have been redesigned with a slick-looking shell back and mechanical functions such as slide, swivel and recline controlled by an electric switch in place of the traditional, and maintenance-prone, cabling system. Full-electric-function single seats also are an option.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Dassault’s decision-makers are betting that all of this adds up to the right airplane at the right time.</p>
<p>And they’re probably right.</p>
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<p><strong>Top Notch Maintenance Support</strong></p>
<p>The 5X will be easier to maintain with longer inspection intervals and an enhanced maintenance computer whose data can be downloaded on the ground or transmitted while airborne via Falcon Broadcast. Warranty terms also improve with the 5X, with items being covered for longer periods—<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">some up to 12 years.</span></p>
<p>Dassault has done much to speed completion time and improve customer support for all its models in recent years: building a 77,000-square-foot maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Bordeaux, France, constructing a 250,000-square-foot, $60 million completion center in Little Rock, Arkansas that will open next year; increasing the number of parts for "right-sizing" price reductions; significantly increasing spare-parts inventories; and hiring more service personnel. Nearly all parts ship within an hour of order placement, and 98.5 percent arrive on the day customers need them.<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">—<em>M.H.</em></span></p>
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<div><a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtonline.com">Mark Hube</a><a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtobline.com">r</a> is a private pilot with experience in more than 50 aircraft models.</div>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pdf field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/falcon_5x_at_a_glance.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=29594" title="falcon_5x_at_a_glance.pdf">Falcon 5X cost and specs</a></span></div></div></div>Mon, 01 Jun 2015 17:58:57 +0000Mark Huber5796 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/new-jet-preview-dassault-falcons-5x#commentsKeeping It Simplehttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/keeping-it-simple-0
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/2014-12_photo-surf_air_members_on_tarmac-web_0.jpg?itok=yND52IRo" width="100" height="67" alt="Surf Air offers members unlimited San Francisco/Los Angeles flights for a flat monthly fee. (Photo courtesy of Surf Air)" title="Surf Air offers members unlimited San Francisco/Los Angeles flights for a flat monthly fee. (Photo courtesy of Surf Air)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>No consumer likes a surprise on the bill, unless, of course, it’s the rare happy surprise. But lots of companies seem to consider inflated invoices integral to the business plan. As we all know from too much experience, the ploy works like this: hook the customer with a low advertised price, then hit him with extra charges.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Business jet travelers’ bills sometimes come loaded with surprises, at least for those who haven’t perused all the fine print. If you’re a charter customer, for example, even the basic flight charges can be difficult to predict: in addition to a per-hour fee for time in the air, there’s a price for taxiing, and some operators also impose minimum flight times, daily minimums or premiums for international or overnight routes. In addition, you can be charged fees for positioning, deicing and catering, plus federal excise tax, segment and fuel surcharges and an assortment of other add-ons.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Oh, and while payment of all these fees will get you up in the air and to your destination, they won’t cover landing. If you’d like to actually return to the ground at the end of your flight, you’ll likely have to pay a charge for that, too.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Despite all of this, charter invoices are a model of simplicity compared with <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/singing-the-legalese-blues" target="_blank">what many fractional-share buyers face</a>. You could almost finish a Tolstoy novel in the time in takes to wade through some fractional contracts—and if you do read yours, you’ll find that acquiring a fractional share involves a lot more than simply deciding what portion of what aircraft you want and paying for it. In addition to the purchase price, there’s an hourly operational fee, plus charges to cover such things as fuel stops and peak travel days. Yet another substantial cost consists not of an amount you pay but of an amount you don’t receive when you sell, due to depreciation.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">You know the old acronym KISS, for Keep It Simple Stupid? As it happens, it was coined by someone in the aviation field—Kelly Johnson, a renowned engineer at Lockheed Martin. I suspect some people in bizav could have benefitted from his advice.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Now, finally, it seems that some of them are getting the point, as we may be witnessing the beginning of a shift toward simpler billing for private aviation services. Many jet cards, for example, tout all-inclusive pricing, with locked-in rates, no fuel surcharges and no interchange fees for using an aircraft model other than the one specified in your contract.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">The latest trend may be to do away with per-flight charges altogether. As columnist James Wynbrandt noted in </span><strong style="line-height: 1.538em;">BJT</strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"> last August, Surf Air now offers an all-you-can-fly membership deal that lets you take as many trips as you want between L.A. and San Francisco for a flat monthly fee (plus a nominal one-time membership charge).</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">So while private jet travel will never be as inexpensive as taking a bus, paying for it may one day be nearly as simple. And that’s good news. Low come-on prices can seem great initially but the thrill can end abruptly with the arrival of a much higher final bill.</span></p>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 26 Nov 2014 15:38:00 +0000Jeff Burger5286 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/keeping-it-simple-0#commentsMoney Matters: When delay can payhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/money-matters-when-delay-can-pay
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/852money-matters_4-15_v.jpg?itok=XlysLFs3" width="63" height="100" alt="You can think of the government as partners. If your investment does well, you&#039;ll make more and so will the government." title="You can think of the government as partners. If your investment does well, you&#039;ll make more and so will the government." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>The longer you can keep the taxman waiting, the better. Here are two good ways.</strong></p>
<p>Most of the time, it’s smart to get a job done sooner rather than later. When it comes to paying taxes, though, the opposite is often true: putting the taxman off as long as the law allows can be a powerful tool in building wealth, assuming the cost of deferring isn’t too steep.</p>
<p>One easy way to take advantage of this tool is to contribute to a tax-deferred retirement account. You can think of the tax deferral as a government loan on favorable terms. You can also think of you and the government as partners. If your investment does well, you’ll make more and so will the government. If you lose money, you and government will share in the loss.</p>
<p>What is this partnership worth to you? Say you’re in a combined 40 percent tax bracket (using a round number for simplicity’s sake) and you invest $10,000 within a qualified plan. The account earns 50 percent, growing to $15,000. You withdraw the money, pay your 40 percent in taxes and are left with $9,000. Here’s the interesting part: the $9,000 is exactly what you would have been left with had you paid the 40 percent ($4,000) in taxes up front, placed the remaining $6,000 in a non-retirement account and earned the same 50 percent <em>tax-free</em>. The benefit of deferring taxes through a pension contribution is essentially the ability to invest the after-tax amount—your portion of the deal, if you will—tax-free. This can be powerful.</p>
<p>For business owners, it can be even more powerful through defined-benefit pensions (including the hybrid cash-balance plan). While contributions to plans such as 401ks cannot exceed $59,000 in 2015 (including employer contributions and catch-up allowances for those over age 50), those to a pure defined-benefit or hybrid cash-balance plan can potentially be far higher, particularly as you approach retirement age. Of course, to adopt such a plan, a business owner must contribute for employees as well and pay administrative costs, so the decision that is right for one owner may be wrong for another.</p>
<p>Not to be overlooked in the pension decision is the possibility, even for wealthy individuals, that taxes will not only be deferred but ultimately paid at a lower rate, either because workplace income has ended or one has moved to a state with lower tax rates (or no income tax at all).</p>
<p>Holding appreciated securities offers another prime way to defer taxes. The potential benefit here is generally smaller than with retirement plans, in part because only the gain is taxable; thus, only that gain benefits from additional deferral. However, in cases of very long holding periods or steep appreciation (Microsoft in the 1990s, Apple since then), earnings can make up the vast majority of the position.</p>
<p>But let’s not forget about risk. The risk specific to tax-deferred retirement accounts largely concerns lack of liquidity—you may not be able to take the money when you need it, at least without paying a penalty. With appreciated stocks, meanwhile, the risk of concentration in one security can be substantial, even reckless. Tax benefits can be intoxicating and get in the way of smart decisions. For perspective, consider that the potential <em>tax</em> cost of diversifying a concentrated position, translated into expected return, can be a lot lower than diversifying from stocks into high-quality bonds. And many savvy investors make the latter decision every day to reduce volatility.</p>
<p>Weighing risk and return isn’t a casual undertaking; the variables include not only risk and return of individual&nbsp; assets but the correlations between them. Tax deferral can add to return and should be a fundamental part of the equation.</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="mailto:ppalazzo@bjtonline.com">Paul Palazzo</a>, a Certified Financial Planner, is managing director at New York-based Altfest Professional Wealth Management.</p>
<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:24:28 +0000Paul Palazzo5606 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/money-matters-when-delay-can-pay#commentsNew Aircraft Preview: Phenom 100Ehttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/new-aircraft-preview-phenom-100e
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/_96i7082.jpg?itok=3PSDOaVS" width="100" height="67" alt="Compared with the Cessna Citation Mustang, the Phenom 100 cruises 50 knots faster and weighs 1,000 pounds more (at maximum takeoff weight)" title="Compared with the Cessna Citation Mustang, the Phenom 100 cruises 50 knots faster and weighs 1,000 pounds more (at maximum takeoff weight)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>The latest version of a market-leading entry-level jet offers important improvements.</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">It’s no wonder that Embraer has delivered more than 300 of its Phenom 100 entry-level jets since 2009. Fast and spacious for its class—with a top speed of 390 knots and now room for up to eight occupants—the aircraft resonates with smaller companies, charter operators and individual owners.</span></p>
<p>Compared with another entry-level jet, the Cessna Citation Mustang, the 100 cruises 50 knots faster and weighs 1,000 pounds more (at maximum takeoff weight). At 1,178 nautical miles, it has about the same range. It holds slightly more luggage (71 cubic feet) and has a larger, more versatile cabin. It can be configured to seat four or six in the cabin, can add an extra passenger when flown single-pilot, and can fit one more on the belted lavatory seat. The Phenom also has a true aft lavatory with an optional solid door.</p>
<p>For interior design, Embraer turned to California-based BMW Group DesignWorksUSA, which the German automaker owns. BMW faced the challenge of making the 100’s four-foot-11-inch-tall and five-foot-one-inch-diameter cabin look bigger than it is. To create the illusion and an overall clean appearance, BMW used upscale automotive-style accents, LED lighting and single-piece sidewalls and headliners. It also employed a visual trick on the floor—a pair of chrome strips that run the length of the cabin into the cockpit and make the space look longer. The chrome continues into the cockpit and is used on the rudder pedals and the signature “ram-horn” control yokes.</p>
<p>The 100’s cabin also features enclosed, pleated window shades; Ultraleather upper sidewalls; carpeted or wood floors; laminate, gloss or veneer cabinet finishes; and carpeted or fabric lower sidewalls. The seats are unusual as well. The headrests are offset from center slightly, designed in a way that provides support when a passenger naturally tilts his head toward the sidewall while napping or looking out the window. The seat cushions are 18 inches wide, have longitudinal tracking, recline from eight to 20 degrees and have integral three-point seatbelts and inboard armrests. For an aircraft this size, they are very comfortable.</p>
<p>In 2013, Embraer announced the 100E, an upgraded version of the 100, and customers began taking delivery of it last year. For 2015, the model comes with a variety of previously extra-value options at no additional charge. They include the Enhanced Takeoff Package, which provides for more engine power on takeoff; an allowance for an extra 330 pounds of passengers, baggage or equipment, known as the maximum zero fuel weight; and more avionics capabilities in the cockpit, including electronic checklists, electronic Jeppesen navigation charts and the synthetic vision system (SVS), which provides an extra margin of safety in bad weather.</p>
<p>Base price is $4.161 million, but options such as premium seats, a solid lavatory door and an extra passenger seat/kibitzer that faces sideways across from the cabin entry door can quickly take the price past $4.4 million. That’s a little more than the base price of Cessna’s new M2, an aircraft slightly larger than the Citation Mustang.</p>
<p>The 100E provides updated avionics and Gogo Biz Internet options. It also addresses problems with the 100’s brake-by-wire system and errant brake-warning CAS (crew alerting system) messages, which led to several runway-overrun accidents and runway incidents such as blown tires. The absence of thrust reversers and perceived deficiencies in the aircraft’s “lift-dump” aerodynamic braking were sources of nervousness for pilots, particularly on runways contaminated with snow and ice. Embraer immediately sought to remedy the brake-by-wire problems with a software fix and by redesigning the brake-control unit and altering the pedal position and feel to bring it in line with the feedback pilots get with conventional mechanical/hydraulic brakes.</p>
<p>To give the aircraft slower descents and surer footing during landings, the 100E comes with multifunction wing spoilers. Officially, Embraer says they make no difference in required stopping distance—which is published as 2,722 feet, the same as for the 100—but they do to varying degrees.</p>
<p>Juarez Santos, who flies a 100E for a Brazilian food company, says that the spoilers enhance maneuverability and improve braking effectiveness on the ground while enabling more rapid descents. “They’ve raised the aircraft’s versatility,” he comments. Santos has more than four years and 1,000 hours of flight time in Phenom 100s. He flies about 25 hours a month and his missions are often in Brazil’s interior, where terrain and weather collide to produce challenging visibility and heavy precipitation.</p>
<p>While the original 100’s interior drew praise, some early customers complained about seat comfort and the noise level of the two-zone environmental-control system fans. There were also limited choices regarding interior fabrics and colors.</p>
<p>The fans were hushed some time ago, and on the 100E Embraer is offering premium slide, swivel and recline single executive seats, similar to those aboard the larger Phenom 300, as an extra-cost option. A significant number of new fabric and color combinations are available on the 100E at no additional charge. Wood veneer is standard and customers can choose from a variety of enhanced cabinetry offerings, including a new galley cabinet (in place of the onboard forward closet or side-facing passenger seat). Compared with its progenitor, the 100E is substantially improved. It should sell well for years to come.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phenom 100E At a Glance</strong></p>
<p>Base price: $4.161 million</p>
<p><strong>Passengers:</strong> 4-6</p>
<p><strong>Pilots:</strong> 1-2</p>
<p><strong>Range:</strong> 1,178 nm</p>
<p><strong>Max. cruise speed:</strong> 390 kt</p>
<p><strong>Max. takeoff weight:</strong> 10, 472 lb</p>
<p><strong>Fuel capacity:</strong> 2,804 lb</p>
<p><strong>Volume:</strong> 208 cu ft</p>
<p><strong>Width (centerline):</strong> 5 ft 1 in</p>
<p><strong>Height</strong>: 4 ft 11 in.</p>
<p><strong>Length</strong>: 11 ft</p>
<p><em>Source: Embraer</em></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtonline.com">Mark Huber</a> is a private pilot with experience in more than 50 aircraft types.</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 09 Apr 2015 13:41:07 +0000Mark Huber5616 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/new-aircraft-preview-phenom-100e#commentsFlights of Fancy?http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/flights-of-fancy
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/jetaviation_timeless_lo3e3.jpg?itok=M0lUPncB" width="100" height="56" alt="Photo: Jet Aviation" title="Photo: Jet Aviation" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>“Not everything can fly,” said Lufthansa Technik’s Walter Heerdt in 2012. “We will not install a swimming pool or a fireplace. That is not possible.”</p>
<p>Back in 2007, however, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud reportedly bought an Airbus A380 double-decker and hired designer Edese Dorset to equip it with not only a swimming pool but a two-car garage for his Rolls-Royces, a stable for horses and camels, a pen for hawks and a prayer room that would rotate so it always faced Mecca. The total cost was said to be around $500 million.</p>
<p>Airbus did nix the pool and it’s not clear how much of the prince’s other plans were completed, as he wound up selling the jet before its first flight. Clearly, though, he was not thinking small. And he wasn’t the first or last jet buyer to decide that the sky’s no limit.</p>
<p>As we reported last year in our annual <em>Buyers’ Guide</em>, recent bizjet cabin projects have included a casino, complete with wet bar and gaming tables, and—Heerdt’s comments notwithstanding—a fireplace in a Boeing 787. OK, it’s a “simulated” fireplace, but it still means the owner can hang his stocking and wait for Santa at 41,000 feet. Then, of course, there are the bizliners that serve as transportation for heads of state, which have such features as two-story ballrooms, elevators, bulletproof glass and surgical suites. (See an upcoming print edition of&nbsp;<strong>BJT</strong> for a report on the 747s that will serve as the next fleet of Air Force One aircraft for U.S. presidents.)</p>
<p>What’s the most amazing cabin customization job you’ve seen on a corporate or private aircraft? Write and let me know. I’ll personally pay a thousand bucks to the first reader who points me to a cabin that features a 40-lane bowling alley or an 18-hole golf course.</p>
<p>On second thought, scratch that last sentence, as the joke could be on me. Given some of what’s flying these days, it’d be risky to call anything impossible.</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 26 Feb 2015 13:31:12 +0000Jeff Burger5441 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/flights-of-fancy#commentsHow to Check Out a Charity http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/how-to-check-out-a-charity
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/fotolia_59836690_web.jpg?itok=NlOtTL8k" width="100" height="100" alt="Any charity to which you donate should be happy to tell you what it’s trying to achieve, how this goal will be accomplished and what it has done so far. (Illustration: Fotolia)" title="Any charity to which you donate should be happy to tell you what it’s trying to achieve, how this goal will be accomplished and what it has done so far. (Illustration: Fotolia)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="p3"><span class="s1">Well over a million charities operate in the U.S. alone, and some do much more good work than others. To make sure your contributions go to the groups that accomplish the most, start by consulting watchdogs like Charity Navigator (<a href="http://charitynavigator.org" target="_blank">charitynavigator.org</a>), the American Institute for Philanthropy (<a href="http://charitywatch.org" target="_blank">charitywatch.org</a>) and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance (<a href="http://give.org" target="_blank">give.org</a>). These outfits rate charities based on factors like how they spend money, protect donor privacy and pay their employees. Charity Navigator even offers lists such as “10 Highly Rated Charities with Low-Paid CEOs” and “10 Highly Rated Charities Relying on Private Contributions” to help you narrow your search for a worthy cause.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Look at the IRS Form 990 of any charity you’re considering. It provides information on the group’s mission, programs and finances. GuideStar (<a href="http://guidestar.org" target="_blank">guidestar.org</a>) offers these forms on 1.8 million tax-exempt organizations for free. Finally, check with your state’s attorney general’s office. Every nonprofit that solicits money has to register with its state.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Prefer giving to a local organization? Contact your area’s Better Business Bureau to see whether&nbsp;it has evaluated the charity you want to support.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s3">Check out the fiscal health of any charity that interests you. Look for its annual report, which should summarize its programs, governance and finances. You may find the report on the charity’s website but if not, ask to be sent a copy.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">The bulk of the money a charity collects should go toward programs, with no more than about 25 percent allocated for administrative costs like fundraising and salaries. “However, if your favorite charity happens to slip below that [75/25] ratio one year, don’t just drop it from your giving portfolio,” says Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing for Charity Navigator. Ask what’s going on and how the organization plans to improve its efficiency. Numbers don’t always tell the whole story.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Any charity to which you donate should be happy to tell you what it’s trying to achieve, how this goal will be accomplished and what it has done so far. It should also be willing to say who leads the organization and how it’s run. You can double-check some of this information by looking at Form 990’s Statement of Program Service Accomplishment, where the charity reports its largest programs and funding allocated to them. You can also visit <a href="http://greatnonprofits.org" target="_blank">greatnonprofits.org</a>, where donors and volunteers write reviews and share information about charities and other nonprofits.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">An amateurish-looking website or a lack of detail can be a tipoff that a charity is questionable. Other things to watch out for include lookalike names and overly boastful claims, says Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Wise ­Giving Alliance.&nbsp;</span></p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:21:32 +0000Alexandra Kay5306 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/how-to-check-out-a-charity#commentsGiving Back: Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundationhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/giving-back-fisher-center-for-alzheimers-research-foundation
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/fotolia_41939016_web.jpg?itok=9znYAmlO" width="100" height="67" alt="(Illustration: Fotolia/Freshidea)" title="(Illustration: Fotolia/Freshidea)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><i><strong>BJT</strong> readers—who represent one of </i></span><span class="s2"><i>the highest-net-worth magazine audi</i></span><span class="s1"><i>ences anywhere—clearly have the means to contribute to a better world. To help you do that, we’re spotlighting one deserving organization per issue. All of them have received a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator </i></span><span class="s2"><i>(<a href="http://charitynavigator.org" target="_blank">charitynavigator.org</a>), which evaluates philanthropic institutions based on their finances, accountability and transparency.</i></span></p>
<p class="p1"><b>Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation </b>(<a href="http://alzinfo.org" target="_blank">alzinfo.org</a>)</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Alzheimer’s disease is brutal and heartbreaking and currently affects more than five million people in the U.S. alone. The highly regarded Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation aims to tackle the illness via a three-pronged approach: understanding Alzheimer’s, finding a cure and improving the care of patients to enhance their quality of life. The foundation funds scientists who continue to be at the forefront of research into the root causes of Alzheimer’s. It also provides outreach programs such as “Keeping Your Mind Sharp,” which provides techniques to reduce age-related memory loss through dietary changes, exercise and mental activity.</span></p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:27:41 +0000Jennifer Leach English5311 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/giving-back-fisher-center-for-alzheimers-research-foundation#commentsEye-Popping Statshttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/eye-popping-stats
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/2014-10_phoro_suspected-ebola-victim.jpg?itok=QOIjHDof" width="100" height="67" alt="Doctors without Borders, shown here aiding a suspected Ebola victim, is one of the charities recently featured in BJT&#039;s Giving Back department." title="Doctors without Borders, shown here aiding a suspected Ebola victim, is one of the charities recently featured in BJT&#039;s Giving Back department." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The demographics of <strong>Business Jet Traveler</strong>’s audience are eye-popping. According to one survey, 57 percent of you are CEOs or in other C-level positions. Your annual income averages $1.3 million and your mean net worth is $18.1 million.</p>
<p>That kind of wealth is obviously as rare as it is impressive. And while it’s just as obvious that life at the other end of the spectrum is not rare at all, the statistics about the world’s most impoverished people remain equally eye-popping: 1 billion children, nearly half of all those on the planet, live in poverty—and about 22,000 die every day because of it. According to a 2008 World Bank report, 1.3 billion people in developing countries survive on $1.25 a day or less, which works out to a maximum of $456 a year.</p>
<p>Many of the rest of the people on Earth aren’t faring much better. According to the same report, fully half the world’s inhabitants live on less than $2.50 a day and 80 percent get by on less than $10 a day. Obviously, the vast majority of these people have no net worth to speak of. Many of them have probably never even heard the term.</p>
<p>Yet another set of statistics suggests that affluent Americans may not be doing enough to help these people. As of 2011, those whose earnings placed them in the top 20 percent contributed on average 1.3 percent of their incomes to charity. Meanwhile, those with earnings in the bottom 20 percent gave 3.2 percent. As the <em>Atlantic</em> pointed out in a 2013 article, “the relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns.”</p>
<p>If you’d like to contribute more to charities, you may be wondering where your money would do the most good. For help finding organizations that deliver assistance effectively, see <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/how-to-check-out-a-charity">“How to Check Out a Charity,”</a> which appeared in <strong>Business Jet Traveler</strong>’s December 2014/January 2015 edition. If you’re pondering a large donation, you might also want to read “<a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/smart-ways-to-give-to-charity" target="_blank">Smart Ways to Give to Charity</a>,” which ran in our June/July 2014 issue.</p>
<p>Want more guidance? Our editorial director, Jennifer Leach English, suggests a worthy charity in "Giving Back," which appears in the On the Fly section of every issue of <strong>BJT</strong>. Many of these organizations aid the poor while others fund medical research, disaster relief and other worthy causes. All of them have been top-rated by <a href="http://charitynavigator.org" target="_blank">Charity Navigator</a>,&nbsp;an outfit that evaluates philanthropic institutions based on their finances, accountability and transparency. Your contribution to any of these groups could make an important difference.</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 13:21:51 +0000Jeff Burger5231 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/eye-popping-stats#commentsHoliday Gift Guide 2014: It's a Wraphttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/holiday-gift-guide-2014-its-a-wrap
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/fotolia_71101340_web.jpg?itok=oHb1_kvb" width="100" height="50" alt="BJT&#039;s guide makes shopping for that special gift as easy as point and click. (Image: Fotolia)" title="BJT&#039;s guide makes shopping for that special gift as easy as point and click. (Image: Fotolia)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="p1"><em><span class="s1">It’s that time of year again, but don’t panic. We’ve found gifts to delight everyone on your list, at prices from $15 to more than $100,000. So skip the malls and shop right here. Your recipients will think you spent lots of time and effort searching for the perfect present, and your secret will be safe with us.</span></em></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>EXTRA JUICE</strong></p>
<p class="p2"><strong><span class="s1">Mophie’s Juice Pack Helium</span></strong><span class="s2">, </span>an ultralight yet protective iPhone case, incorporates a battery that provides up to 80 percent extra power. We used it in the car for four hours without petering out while consulting MapQuest (an app whose only notable shortcoming is that it sucks the life out of your phone). Available in seven colors for $79.95 at <a href="http://mophie.com" target="_blank">mophie.com</a>.</p>
<p class="p3">Want more power? Jackery offers several external battery options for charging phones and tablets on the go. Most recently the company introduced<span class="s2"> </span><strong><span class="s1">Leaf</span></strong><span class="s2">, </span>a $49.95 snap-on iPhone case that offers up to 100 hours of extra battery time. Check out the selection at <a href="http://jackeryusa.com." target="_blank">jackeryusa.com.</a></p>
<p class="p3">Mophie’s Juice Pack Helium and Jackery’s Leaf are both available for iPhone 5/5s. Neither company has confirmed plans for iPhone 6 versions but we suspect they’re on the way.</p>
<p class="p3">Know someone who’s constantly looking for a socket to charge a portable device? The<span class="s3"> </span><strong><span class="s1">Hub It Synch and Charge Station</span></strong><span class="s2"> </span>may be the answer. It’s capable of rapidly syncing and charging up to seven portable devices simultaneously. The sleek design includes retractable cartridge connectors to hide that unsavory tangle of cords we spy on even the most organized kitchen counters. It costs $79.99 and is available from a variety of retailers <i>(see <a href="http://eggtronic.com" target="_blank">eggtronic.com</a> for a list).</i></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>GALLERY OPENING</strong></p>
<p class="p2"><strong><span class="s1">WhiteWall</span> </strong>could forever change the way we frame family photos. This innovative lab/framing service allows you to enlarge and frame any photo through a simple point-and-click process that takes a few minutes on an easy-to-navigate website. You upload an image from your computer and then choose from various printing and mounting options. The prices are reasonable considering the high quality and quick turnaround. We were particularly impressed with WhiteWall’s handling of a large-scale image of a child, which the company printed directly under acrylic glass and framed to perfection. Prices for most items range from $10 to $800 at <a href="http://whitewall.com" target="_blank">whitewall.com</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>MONTHLY BLOOM</strong></p>
<p class="p2">Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “the <span class="s1">Earth laughs in flowers,” so spread the merriment around this year by choosing a gift that is sure to bring a smile. The floral subscription service </span>at <span class="s2">1800flowers.com</span> offers several attractive options, including Bloom of the Month ($59.99/bouquet), which is a monthly shipment of the freshest flowers available, and Rose of the Month ($39.99/bouquet), which is just as <span class="s1">sweet. You can opt for delivery of either for three, six or 12 months. We use </span><a href="http://1800flowers.com" target="_blank"><strong>1800flowers.com</strong></a> all the time because of its exceptional service and quality.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>CHEF IN A BOX</strong></p>
<p class="p2">Concerned about a recent college graduate who is living on his or her own for the first time and placing low priority on nutritious <span class="s1">eating? The folks at </span><strong><span class="s2">dCuisine</span></strong><span class="s1"><strong> </strong>have reinvented the TV dinner </span><span class="s3">by preparing frozen entrees that actually rival many restaurant </span><span class="s1">meals. Chef Ken Arnone creates seasonal menus using the finest, </span>healthiest ingredients and cooks single-serve soups <span class="s3">(butternut squash, Thai chicken) and treats such as beef short </span><span class="s1">ribs and Pacific seafood stew in small batches. The meals are then </span>flash-frozen and shipped in dry ice to stack in the freezer until dinnertime. We were skeptical too—until we tasted the food. Meals start at $15, gift certificates at $50, from <a href="http://dcuisine.com" target="_blank">dcuisine.com</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>CHOCOHOLICS, REJOICE</strong></p>
<p class="p2"><strong><span class="s1">Dear Coco</span></strong>—a new handcrafted brand of truffles and <span class="s2">bars—is all-natural, dairy-free and gluten-free. It also ranks among the best and richest chocolate we’ve sampled. The honey-infused “Around The World” truffle collection includes 12 varieties with </span><span class="s3">innovative flavors such as “Mumbai Masala Chai” and “New </span><span class="s2">Orleans Bananas Foster.” What sealed the deal for us were the </span>toffee chocolate bars, which come in a neat stack of eight in <span class="s4">delicious flavors, including cinnamon clove, rosewater and pie </span><span class="s2">spice. Beware: it will be hard to resist eating the whole lot at once. The Toffee Chocolate Bar Gift Set goes for $65 at <a href="http://dearcoco.com" target="_blank">dearcoco.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>I SCREAM,YOU SCREAM</strong></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Make life a bit sweeter by sending a treat the whole family can enjoy—ice cream. </span>Here are three options we recommend.</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2">Create your own custom-made ice cream, gelato or fat-free/dairy-free sorbet on </span><a href="http://eCreamery.com" target="_blank"><strong><span class="s3">eCreamery.com</span></strong></a><span class="s1">, where you can let your fantasies run wild by choosing </span>from more than 40 flavors and 30 mix-ins. The company even lets you design a <span class="s2">personal label and packaging to prove it’s your recipe. An original batch of sorbet or </span><span class="s1">ice cream starts at $59.99 for a half-gallon (packaged in four </span><span class="s2">pint containers), and there are all sorts of options for one-time or monthly delivery, with Flavor of the Month subscriptions starting at $200 (for three months) at <a href="http://ecreamery.com" target="_blank">ecreamery.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p3">Ohio’s<span class="s3"> <strong>Graeter’s</strong></span><span class="s1"> ice cream has been around since 1870 for a reason. You can’t go wrong with this creamy concoction, which is available in a variety of flavors, both classic (butter pecan, chocolate chip) and seasonal (cinnamon, pumpkin). These are calories that are worth the splurge. Choose a six-pack of pints for $60 or send a 12-pack for $120 at <a href="http://graeters.com" target="_blank">graeters.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><strong><span class="s4">Greenfield</span></strong> makes its ice cream from scratch in small batches using milk, cream, sugar and eggs plus other all-natural ingredients. Choose from more than a dozen flavors, including our favorites: salted caramel and peanut-butter chip. You can order a sampler pack of 10 pints for $74 and you can customize the labels with your own message. Memberships start at $48 for two pints a month for three months at <a href="http://greenfieldicecream.com" target="_blank">greenfieldicecream.com</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>COPY THAT</strong></p>
<p class="p2">Impress the techie on your list with a cutting-edge 3-D <span class="s1">printer from Maker Bot. The easy-to-use equipment </span>can design and print anything from toys to tablet cases to coffee mugs. The fifth-generation <strong><span class="s2">Desktop MakerBot Replicator Printer</span> </strong>sells for <span class="s3">$2,899 at <a href="http://makerbot.com" target="_blank">makerbot.com</a>; you can also buy a compact version </span><span class="s1">for $1,375, and owners can sign up for classes at MakerBot </span><span class="s3">stores to “learn how to create the things you want and need.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">A TOAST TO THE TWENTIES</span></strong></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s2">Restoration Hardware has created a <strong>bar cart</strong> based on a light-bulb testing machine it found in a 1920s-era German factory. Stock it up with whiskey, wine and crystal glasses for the ultimate gift for someone who appreciates a good cocktail. The price is $1,995 at <a href="http://restorationhardware.com" target="_blank">restorationhardware.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong>DAILY REMINDER</strong></strong></p>
<p class="p2">The handwritten daily planner has fallen out of favor with the embrace of electronic calendars, but some people still prefer paper. For them, a planner from <strong><span class="s1">Smythson of Bond Street </span></strong>is the perfect gift. Each year the iconic luxury leather-goods company rolls out a new line of vibrantly colored pocket and desk diaries and organizers. We especially love the Soho Diary (about $390), whose stunning design <span class="s2">makes jotting down dentist appointments almost enjoyable. Visit <a href="http://Smythson.com" target="_blank">Smythson.com</a>, where you’ll find other beautiful leather goods and stationery that will enchant anyone who craves a little luxury.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong>MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD</strong></strong></p>
<p class="p2">There is something glamorous and dignified about pulling a heavy, gorgeous fountain pen out of your pocket or bag. Pens continue to be fantastic gifts, perhaps even more so now that technology has made the handwritten word so rare. We love the U.K.-based <strong>Pen Shop</strong>, which offers everything from the basic Montblanc to a $150,000 gold Caran d’Ache Caelograph fountain pen. Don’t worry: it comes with a lifetime international guarantee at <a href="http://penshop.co.uk" target="_blank">penshop.co.uk</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong>BACK TO BASICS</strong></strong></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2">Nothing feels better than watching a small child’s imagination ignite, and this colorful set of wooden cars from Nova Natural spark lots of elaborate pretending in every youngster who comes to our house. <strong>Nova Natural </strong>also offers a slew of other simple and beautifully made gifts, such as colored pencil sets, brightly colored wooden rattles and amber necklaces for teething infants. A set of six wooden cars is $69 at <a href="http://novanatural.com" target="_blank">novanatural.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong>FOR THE TOT WHO HAS EVERYTHING</strong></strong></p>
<p class="p2">Before you dismiss this miniature Range Rover as a tacky toy for the <span class="s1">nouveau-riche, consider the joy it will bring to you and your guests as </span><span class="s2">you enjoy glasses of wine on the porch while your children drive around the backyard for hours on end. One weekend last summer we watched </span><span class="s1">as the </span><strong><span class="s3">Avigo Range Rover Sport</span></strong><span class="s1"><strong> </strong>captivated kids of all </span><span class="s2">ages. We’re especially impressed with the durability and stability of this </span><span class="s1">little set of wheels, which is designed with fun sound effects, working </span><span class="s2">doors </span><span class="s4">and chrome wheels and tailpipes. It travels up to 4.5 mph in forward </span><span class="s2">and reverse and features a speaker jack that lets children listen to their favorite songs on the road when they connect a portable music player. </span><span class="s1">The Range Rover retails for $399.99&nbsp;at <a href="http://toysrus.com" target="_blank">toysrus.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong>ULTIMATE STOCKING STUFFER</strong></strong></p>
<p class="p2"><strong><span class="s1">The Four Seasons </span></strong>hotel chain now has its own custom-designed, retrofitted Boeing 757 (everyone on board gets a flat-bed seat), and it is offering the experience of a lifetime: an around-the-world trip, with stops at up to 10 destinations. Experiences can include diving with a marine biologist in the Maldives and learning to make sushi in Tokyo. The Four Seasons accommodations and unparalleled service don’t hurt, either. You can arrange this unforgettable gift for $119,000 per person at <a href="http://fourseasons.com" target="_blank">fourseasons.com</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong>LITTLE SHOP, BIG IDEAS</strong></strong></p>
<p class="p2"><strong><span class="s1">Lon Little Shop</span></strong><span class="s2"> claims to “meticulously select products from the best designers and brands </span><span class="s3">in the world,” and having visited this tiny Boulder, Colorado store, we can attest that it delivers on that goal. Here you will find exquisite and </span><span class="s2">unusual gifts, ranging from original artwork (we love the “With Love” numbered heart prints) to backpacks to brass bell ring holders that look like mini sculpture. Don’t worry if you have no plans </span><span class="s3">to visit Boulder: all of the items are available at <a href="http://lonlittleshop.com" target="_blank">lonlittleshop.com</a> and shipping is free.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><strong><strong><strong>MAKE THAT A RED EYE</strong></strong></strong></strong></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">For the strong coffee lover, nothing tops a beautifully made double espresso, and for espresso machines, no one tops the </span><span class="s2">Italians. Illy’s </span><strong><span class="s3">Pasquini Livietta</span></strong><span class="s2"><strong> </strong>espresso and cappuccino machine is built to fit compactly on most kitchen counters </span><span class="s1">but has the commercial-strength power </span><span class="s2">needed to steam milk and brew espresso at </span><span class="s1">the same time, so your guests won’t have </span>to wait while you make the foam. It goes for $1,075 at <a href="http://Illy.com" target="_blank">Illy.com</a>.</p>
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<p><em><a href="mailto:english@bjtonline.com">Jennifer Leach English</a> is <strong>BJT</strong>’s editorial director.</em></p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:10:22 +0000Jennifer Leach English5276 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/holiday-gift-guide-2014-its-a-wrap#commentsPhiladelphia Cricket Clubhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/philadelphia-cricket-club
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/philadelphia-cricket_wissahickon7_6585206_web.jpg?itok=uVGcXAf0" width="100" height="73" alt="7th hole, Wissahickon Course (Photo: Evan Schiller Golfshots.com)" title="7th hole, Wissahickon Course (Photo: Evan Schiller Golfshots.com)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>After a complete restoration, it features an expanded course layout that testifies to the genius of designer A.W. Tillinghast.</em></p>
<p>If you like old school, Philadelphia Cricket Club is the place for you. The club dates from 1854 and has grown to the point where it now sports 45 holes of golf on two parcels that are five miles apart. The original St. Martins layout, in the upscale, leafy neighborhood of Chestnut Hill, was home to the U.S. Open in 1907 and 1910. Today, golf there comes in the form of a charming little nine-hole layout (par-35, measuring 2,617 yards) that’s part of a campus with tennis and a gourmet dining facility.</p>
<p>The club’s main golf facility is a 365-acre tract in Flourtown, 15 miles north of downtown Philadelphia. There, the Wissahickon Course is a 1922 design that was the home turf of its architect, the flamboyant A.W. Tillinghast, whose ashes were scattered on the grounds. An adjoining parcel remained unused until 2002, when Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry debuted the Militia Hill Course (par-72, back tees at 7,380 yards).</p>
<p>Tillie’s Wissahickon Course (par-70, stretching to 7,119 yards) was always intended as a championship fairway in terms of length, quality of greens shaping and his characteristically wild bunkering scheme. One legendary hazard was a scattershot diagonal bunkering array—a “hell’s half-acre” of sand—across the middle of the course on the par-5 seventh hole. Sadly, that got covered up over the years, as did many other bunkers. Trees grew in, in some cases closeting hole corridors down and shutting off views (and air movement). Greens shrank. Lines of play got straightened.</p>
<p>Now, after a complete restoration by architect Keith Foster, the newly reopened layout emerges as a stirring example of Tillinghast’s genius. Greens have been expanded and trees taken down to reveal long views across the property; bunkers have been deepened and restored, and large tracts of wavy fescue have been established.</p>
<p>Most clubs lose members during a prolonged closure for restoration. Philly Cricket membership, however, grew from 660 to 770. It helped having other golf available next door at Militia Hill and over at St. Martin’s. It also helped having an expansive practice facility, meticulously maintained golf course turf (courtesy of superintendent Dan Meersman) and a gracious golf operation run by the PGA’s Jim Smith, Jr.</p>
<p>And then there’s the rambling farmhouse of a clubhouse—looks creaky, feels comfortable—that literally brushes up against the back of the first tee and 18th green at Wissahickon. Now that’s old school.</p>
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<p><b>COURSE:&nbsp;</b>The Philadelphia Cricket Club, Flourtown, Pennsylvania. For information, call (215) 247-6113 or visit philacricket.com.</p>
<p><b>AIRPORTS:&nbsp;</b>Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE) has a 7,000-foot runway and is 17 miles east of the club. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) has a 10,506-foot runway and is 30 miles south of the club.</p>
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<p><em><a href="mailto:bklein@bjtonline.com">Brad Klein</a> is the architecture editor of</em> Golfweek<i>. His latest book is </i>Wide Open Fairways<i>.</i></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 18:03:39 +0000Bradley S. Klein5266 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/philadelphia-cricket-club#commentsGetaways: Gorilla Tracking in Rwandahttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/getaways-gorilla-tracking-in-rwanda
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/lodge-view-2.jpg?itok=TfjbPSwp" width="100" height="69" alt="Volcanoes Virunga Lodge" title="Volcanoes Virunga Lodge (Photo: Volcanoes Safaris)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1"><i>A high-altitude trek in a remote African bamboo forest puts our correspondent face-to-face with humanity’s closest relatives.&nbsp;</i></span></strong></p>
<p><em>Thwack, thwack, thwack.&nbsp;</em>The tracker uses his machete to slice through dense brush in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, where I have come to see the gorillas. The terrain here in East Africa is steep, muddy and slippery and the uneven earth is covered with stinging nettles, fire ants and poison ivy—not a good place to fall. At least I’m over my jetlag, having arrived two days ago after a 19-hour flight from New York; a night in an airport motel; a flight the next morning from Uganda’s Entebbe to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda; and a four-hour drive to the Volcanoes Virunga Lodge.</p>
<p>Already, I’ve had quite an experience at this luxury resort, which is perched on top of a hill with panoramic views of three soaring volcanoes and two glistening lakes. On my first night here, I savored a gourmet dinner of pumpkin soup, grilled salmon and a decadent chocolate-filled dessert. Then costumed members of the local Intore tribe offered a dancing and drumming performance on the lawn, after which I walked along a winding path to my private banda (cottage) and stood on the veranda to gaze up at a universe of giant stars. The next morning, I had a deep massage and toured a school where the children greeted me with, “Good morning, visitor,” and sang to me in Rwandan.</p>
<p>Right now, though, I’m immersed in the main event, the one I’ve traveled halfway around the world to experience: tracking gorillas. We walk up a steep incline and I stumble on a root, but the porter is right there to stop my fall. I had no intention of hiring a porter to carry my backpack—I consider myself adventurous—but we’ve been warned that we could be out a long time looking for the primates, so my backpack is loaded down with water bottles, extra clothing layers and raingear. The porter helps me across ravines and up steep embankments, pushes hanging vines away from my face and keeps me from falling. Hiring a porter is the best $10 investment I’ve ever made.</p>
<p>“Stick close together,” says our guide, Fidel (“not Castro,” he keeps repeating). There are eight of us, plus Fidel, the trackers and our porters. The altitude is more than 8,000 feet and it’s slow going, but I’m not complaining: I know every step will be worth it once we see humanity’s closest relatives, who share 97 percent of our genes.</p>
<p>Of the 700 mountain gorillas left in the world, more than half are here at Volcanoes National Park, which was made famous by <i>Gorillas in the Mist</i>, a 1983 book by Dian Fossey and 1988 movie starring Sigourney Weaver. Ten groups of habituated gorillas (meaning they aren’t frightened by humans) live in this park. Each day 80 lucky permit holders in groups of eight go with a guide and trackers to look for one of these gorilla families. Additional trackers assigned to each of these families leave early every morning to find and radio the primates’ location, and the guide then leads visitors to that spot.</p>
<p>This is not a zoo, however, and the gorillas don’t appear on cue—even after the tracker radios the location, the animals are constantly moving and you have to find them. Usually, guests do so after a two- or three-hour hike, though one day, a group of Spanish tourists still hadn’t come upon any gorillas by 4 p.m. Fidel suggested they go back the next morning free of charge (a one-person permit costs $750), but they had an airplane to catch, so they stayed and eventually found the primates, though they had to walk back through the forest in the dark and didn’t return to their vehicles until 10 at night. I hope that’s not our fate.</p>
<p>We are tracking the Hirwa group, which means “lucky one.” This family came together eight years ago, made up of gorillas from two other families. There are now 12 gorillas in the Hirwa group, among them a Silverback, mothers, teenagers and babies. The Silverback, Munvinya, originally belonged to the Susa group (one of the families that Fossey studied), but he mated with some of the group’s females, causing a rift with the Susa Silverback. One day Munvinya took two females, left the group and moved to another part of the forest; along the way he collected more females, including one that gave birth to twins.</p>
<p>We slog along for about an hour and then Fidel’s walkie-talkie beeps. He speaks into it in Rwandan and grins. “The gorillas are very near,” he says. “Put down everything you’re carrying except cameras. Remember, no flash. Stay close together and follow me quietly.” The only sound comes from our boots crunching leaves and twigs as we move single file toward a clearing in a bamboo forest.</p>
<p>Suddenly Fidel signals us to form a semicircle in a little clearing and sit down. I gasp. In front of us are 10 gorillas that obviously know we’re here but don’t seem to care. We are allowed to watch for one hour and are supposed to remain no closer than seven meters (about 23 feet).</p>
<p>Some of the gorillas groom each other; one chews bamboo leaves, then farts; another, the size of a washing machine, moves to within six feet of us, pounds his chest and lumbers off. A female nurses twin babies. Another young one, hand gripped tightly around a bamboo stalk, tries to swing onto a vine. He makes a few attempts, succeeds and then swings back and forth, as cute as a toddler.</p>
<p>A gorilla sprawls on his back, hands clasped behind his head and feet crossed as though he were sunbathing on a beach. He uncrosses his legs and scratches one foot with the other. His feet look human except his toes are as long as my fingers and his big toe looks like a large thumb. The primates’ expressions seem human: serene, pensive and curious.</p>
<p>One gorilla that has been sitting quietly, his mouth fixed in a yawn, stands up, pounds his chest, catches my eye and starts to run straight toward me. My heart is in my throat and I can feel my skin prickling. I push my hands hard into the ground, ready to spring up and make a run for it but&nbsp;at that moment, Fidel steps between me and the gorilla, and the primate backs off. “He’s just trying to show his superiority,” Fidel says.</p>
<p>A medium-sized gorilla scratches his arm as another moves in my direction. I look for Fidel to save me again but he is not close enough this time. “Don’t move,” he whispers. I avert my eyes and the gorilla grunts. Then it moves away. I am still shaking as I raise my camera to take a photo of a young gorilla grooming his mother. There’s a rustling sound above us. Birds? Monkeys? I look up to a black furry blob. It’s a gorilla in the tree. Will it fall on me?</p>
<p>Suddenly a black gorilla with a silver saddle lumbers through the bamboo trees. He must weigh more than 400 pounds. It’s the silverback, Munvinya. He grunts, then brushes past us and disappears into the bamboo shoots. “Come,” whispers Fidel.</p>
<p>We follow him down a hill as steep as a ski slope, clinging to vines and tree branches. I have a gut feeling we won’t find the Silverback because the bush is so thick, but just then Fidel stops. There, in a small clearing about six feet from us, is Munvinya mating with one of the females. A young gorilla just a few inches away pays no attention. The act goes on for a long time; when it finally ends, Munvinya clambers off his mate’s back and sits on the ground.</p>
<p>That night at the Lodge, we all bring our laptops to dinner and compare photographs. They serve as proof that this was not a dream—we truly saw the gorillas. The next morning, on the drive back to the airport, I gaze out at field after field of rice paddies and crops of sorghum and Irish potatoes and corn surrounded by soaring volcanoes. Along the side of the road is a continual parade of Rwandans: young boys carrying huge piles of branches on their shoulders, women with heavy cassava leaf bundles balanced on their heads, young children walking by their sides. Rwanda is now a peaceful and safe country where everyone lives in harmony. We stop at a roadside stall for succulent fresh-roasted corn and steaming hot sweet potatoes. A man walks by, pushing his bike, which is laden with five huge sacks of potatoes.</p>
<p>Back in the vehicle, we drive past a field where three majestic herons are perched in the grass, each standing on one leg. Herons, in Africa were thought to communicate with the Gods, an apt ending to my Rwandan adventure.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>TRAVELER FAST FACTS</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>WHAT IT IS:&nbsp;</strong>Rwanda, located a few degrees south of the equator in East Africa, is one of the few countries where visitors can track habituated gorillas. Ten gorilla families live in Volcanoes National Park, which offers the choice of easy, medium or advanced terrain to find them.</p>
<p><strong>CLIMATE:&nbsp;</strong>The best time to visit the Virunga area of Rwanda is during the dry seasons, from mid December through February and from June through October. There’s little reason not to come during the rest of the year, however, as it most often rains only briefly in the afternoons. It gets chilly in the mountains at night, so bring a sweater.</p>
<p><strong>GETTING THERE:&nbsp;</strong>Fly to Kigali International Airport or to Entebbe and connect to Kigali—an 18- to 21-hour flight from the U.S. East Coast. Then drive four hours to Ruhengeri or charter a chopper directly to the Volcanoes Virunga Lodge heliport with Akagera Aviation (phone: +250-280280600). Private jets fly into Kigali International, which has an 11,483-foot runway. Landing fees and diplomatic clearance may be required. For information, email the Rwanda Airport Authority at <a href="mailto:raa@rwanda1.com">raa@rwanda1.com</a> or call +250-83441/85845.</p>
<p><strong>WHAT TO KNOW&nbsp;BEFORE YOU GO:&nbsp;</strong>Visas aren’t required for U.S. citizens. Safari lodges cover most costs. For personal expenses, figure $30 to $50 per day. The U.S dollar, which equals about 660 Rwandan francs, is accepted everywhere. (Bills must be in excellent condition with no stains or tears.) Anti-malaria tablets and mosquito repellent are essential and yellow-fever vaccination is strongly suggested.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>TRAVELER REPORT CARD</strong></em><br><br />
<strong>ACCOMMODATIONS (A):&nbsp;</strong>I stayed at the luxurious Volcanoes Virunga Lodge. Perched high on a ridge with magnificent views of the volcanoes and twin lakes below, this eco-friendly resort features 10 standalone cottages with terraces and full baths. The $3,797 high-season and $3,417 low-season rates are per person, based on double occupancy, and cover a three-night, four-day stay with full board, massages and a gorilla permit. Another excellent resort is Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, which is not quite as opulent but close to park headquarters.</p>
<p><strong>FOOD (A):&nbsp;</strong>Meals at Virunga Lodge are delicious and plentiful with picnic lunches available for excursions. Three-course dinners include westernized specialties such as ravioli with roasted pumpkin and ginger and the popular “Taste of Rwanda” (banana and beef stew, red beans, cassava and rice with peanut sauce). All bread is homemade as are the gorilla animal crackers.</p>
<p><strong>ACTIVITIES (A+):&nbsp;</strong>Visitors come to track the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park as well as to track golden monkeys. You can hike (six to eight hours) to Dian Fossey’s grave, climb Visoke Volcano (five to eight hours at high altitude) and visit the Mwiko Primary School to help students practice English. A great add-on destination is Mt. Gahinga Volcanoes Safari Lodge in Uganda, less than two hours away by car. There you can track gorillas and golden monkeys, hike up volcanoes and interact with the Batwa pygmies during a not-to-be-missed cultural-heritage experience that includes a dance/drumming performance. Epic Road customizes Rwanda gorilla tracking tours with lodges of the customer’s choice and will combine Rwanda with a traditional game drive safari in Tanzania (visitors can fly from Rwanda direct to Serengeti).</p>
<p><strong>QUIETUDE (A+):&nbsp;</strong>At the Virunga Safaris Lodge, guests generally hear nothing but wind rustling through the trees and birds singing. As noted in the accompanying story, though, my first night here featured a half hour of thunderous drumming, singing and dancing by the local Intore tribe.</p>
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<p><i style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:mgoldsmith@bjtonline.com">Margie Goldsmith</a> is a&nbsp;</i><i style="line-height: 1.538em;">New York City-based freelance writer. Her <a href="http://bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/renaissance-woman-barbara-barrett" target="_blank">interview</a> with businesswoman, diplomat and astronaut Barbara Barrett appeared in our August/September issue.</i></p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:15:28 +0000Margie Goldsmith5256 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/getaways-gorilla-tracking-in-rwanda#commentsHoneywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cotehttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/honeywell-chairman-and-ceo-dave-cote
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/davidcote4.25.14150_web.jpg?itok=BBokWK4N" width="100" height="67" alt="Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote (Photo: Bill Bernstein)" title="Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote (Photo: Bill Bernstein)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>When Honeywell International appointed Dave Cote as CEO and chairman in 2002, the world was in recession and the company was in dire straits. It had just been through an ineffectively executed merger with AlliedSignal and was suffering from substantial financial losses, low morale and divided focus.</p>
<p>But Cote, whose hardscrabble New Hampshire childhood is well documented, was used to turning things around. The new CEO—whose previous experience included two decades in senior positions at General Electric—began by systematically changing the corporate culture. He unloaded dozens of businesses, bought dozens more and moved some operations to countries such as China and India, where costs are lower. Today Honeywell is a diversified technology and manufacturing company with more than $40 billion in assets that delivers strong results to shareholders. It has enjoyed the kind of comeback that will likely be studied in business schools for years. As for its leader, <i>Barron’s</i> echoed a widely held view when it named him this year to a list of the world’s best CEOs.</p>
<p>Cote (pronounced coat-<em>ee</em>) clearly owes his success partly to self-confidence and self-discipline. (Rudyard Kipling’s “If,” a poem about those traits, hangs in the doorway of his office. <em>Read it at the end of this interview</em>.) I was also struck during our interview by his focused energy, lack of any apparent cynicism and childlike excitement about topics ranging from business jets to the New England Patriots to iPhone cases. I found it easy to see how his enthusiasm for Honeywell and its products could motivate employees at his Fortune 100 company, because when I met with him at his head office in Morristown, New Jersey, I was far along in my second pregnancy and exhausted, but I came away 90 minutes later completely energized.</p>
<p>One reason Cote stands out is his commitment to bipartisanship—a rare attribute these days. Though a registered Republican, he has close ties to the Obama Administration. In 2009, the President named Cote co-chair of the U.S.-India CEO Forum, on which he has served since 2005. Then, in 2010, Obama appointed him to serve on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also known as the Simpson-Bowles Commission.</p>
<p>At Honeywell, Cote places a priority on being visible and accessible to more than 131,000 employees in approximately 100 countries. He logs about 500 hours per year on the company’s business aircraft <em>(see "The Honeywell Fleet" below)</em>, often jetting off to one of 300-plus plants to walk the floor.<br><br />
<strong>You travel exclusively on Honeywell’s aircraft. How has that made a difference for you?</strong></p>
<p>It is not just important that I use my time effectively, but also that I get out and connect with employees so that they know that I know that what they are doing is important. In the U.S. and some other countries I can see three plants in a day. I could never do that without a business jet.</p>
<p>I am also able to work a lot more effectively on [a corporate aircraft]. We have developed software that allows me to use my Blackberry and iPhone on the plane. I can be 45,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean and dealing with my guys in China, the U.S. and South America. It allows me to constantly be running the company.</p>
<p><strong>You operate worldwide. What is your advice to companies that are trying to start businesses or open factories outside their own countries?</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Learn all the local laws and regulations, get good advice locally and make sure you understand it. Sometimes you’ll find that what the other country is already doing is even more logical than what you [are used to doing].</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">It is amazing how far you can get by just remembering those lessons your parents taught you. Treat people with respect, be nice to people, and it is remarkable how much they’ll forgive you.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Where you grew up there weren’t many successful businesspeople to look up to.&nbsp;Your own kids, however, are dealing with the opposite extreme. The reality is that it will be hard for them to measure up to you in terms&nbsp;of business success.</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">It is a little difficult for kids sometimes if they grow up with a parent who has had some success. There are enough people like me—people who start with almost nothing and end up in a good place—that they have awards for us. But there are no awards for kids who start with something and also turn out well. Because if they are successful people say, “Well, of course.” If they are not successful people say, “Look at all the advantages that kid had and he still couldn’t do it.” So my kids are in a tougher spot than I was.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">It’s also tougher because they have a lot&nbsp;more choices, and they have to pick the right ones. Whereas for me, the only [question] I had to [ask] was, “Is this going to pay me more than the last job?”</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">How do you like being a grandfather?</span></strong></p>
<p>I don’t consider myself an emotional type. Four years ago, I got the word [my grandchild was about to be born], so I drove to Massachusetts. I stayed up all night waiting for the big event, very calm. And then I went into the room and I held her, and all of a sudden I started blubbering like a baby. I remember sitting there thinking, what is happening to me? I was much more moved by it than I ever thought I would be. I was just astounded by my reaction.</p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">I like what you have said about&nbsp;the importance of being self-aware.</span></strong></p>
<p>I am a relative latecomer to self-awareness but I did learn it, thank God.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">There was kind of a watershed moment about 20 years ago. I used to get feedback that I was defensive about things, to which my reaction, of course, was, “No, I am not.” One day I was in a meeting, and I reacted to something being said, and the person said, “Gee, Dave, don’t be so defensive.” So I asked him directly, “Do you consider me defensive?” And he said, “Well, I wouldn’t say you are defensive. But if we say something negative about your organization and we are not 100 percent correct, you will rip our lips off.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">That stuck with me. I thought about it a lot, and realized I need to think differently. Sometimes I still get defensive, but I am much more aware of it now.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Right now the press loves you but when you first started as CEO, the press was not kind. How did you handle the criticism?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">I was relatively confident that we could [succeed]. I felt that we didn’t have any other choice, and it’s not like I could argue back [with the press] because in the beginning I had nothing of substance to argue with. The only thing that would ever prove it is if I could [achieve success].</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">In college you worked nights in an airplane factory. Do you ever look back in disbelief at how far you have come since then?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Always. Sometimes I will think to myself, “I can’t believe that little Dave Cote from Suncook, New Hampshire is doing this.” I mean, my big goal when I finally did get out of school was to someday make $20,000 a year to support my family.</span></p>
<p><strong>How far would you allow yourself to dream back then?</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">It was kind of a budding awareness. Every step I took where I realized I could do it allowed me to think bigger than I did before. And it is not like people were always helpful along the way. I remember having an interview with a general manager when I was in finance and him asking, “What do you want to do someday?” I told him that I would like to be a general manager of a business. He said, “Well, that is not going to happen—get real. What would you really like to do?”</span></p>
<p>So [I needed to have] a fair amount of confidence [in order to move forward.] But it grew over time and it wasn’t until maybe 20 years ago when I first started to think, “You know, I probably could be a CEO. I wonder if there is a way to make that happen.” But [I didn’t think like that] from the beginning. The first 10 years was just, “I need money. I need to support my family.”</p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Do you credit your parents with giving you the original self-confidence that then grew? Or were you born with it?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">I am a big believer in nature as well as nurture—that we all have a genetic soup that goes back thousands of generations, and who knows what part we get. But it’s also nurture. All five kids in my family are pretty independent, and I don’t think that’s [purely] genetic. Our parents taught us that you are responsible for yourself and your behaviors.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">They gave all of us different responsibilities. When I was 10, Mom put me on the bus with a bunch of money to go downtown, pay the bills, get the receipts and the right change and come back home. It was a little daunting the first time but eventually you learn and you grow. My dad had all of us working in the garage at a young age.</span></p>
<p><strong>Did your father live to see your success?</strong></p>
<p>He started getting Alzheimer’s at a relatively young age, so unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way. He passed away about 15 years ago.</p>
<p><strong>But your mother is still alive.&nbsp;How does it feel to have her along for the ride?</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">I am quite proud of my mom. My dad had six months of high school, my mom had two days of high school and then got a secretarial degree. But [she always had enormous] confidence, dealing with anybody at any level. When I was in college she said, “I am going to go to high school; I don’t want to have my son in college and I haven’t even gone to high school.” And she didn’t just get her GED—she actually went to high school at night.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">You enjoy hunting and fishing. Is that because you can leave your devices behind and separate from the pressures of work?</span></strong></p>
<p>I never disconnect, no matter what I’m doing. I have this paranoia that somewhere in the organization things are being held up as people wait for me, so I am religious about doing email. It is why we can use our Blackberries and stuff at 45,000 feet, because I want to make sure everybody is connected all the time. Even if I am in remote places, I will have a satellite downlink so that I can do my email every day.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">That said, hunting and fishing, as well as scuba-diving and snow-skiing, are all-consuming when you are doing them. It is a way of relaxing because you can’t think about anything else; you really have to concentrate on what you are doing.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Despite being a registered Republican,&nbsp;you are very involved with the Obama Administration. Does that fact say anything about the way you lead at Honeywell?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">One thing we try to do at Honeywell is to not drive the company through ideology, but through facts and opinions. A phrase I use a lot is that as a leader, it is important to be right at the end of the meeting, not at the beginning. Running your company that way means that you are spending a lot more time upfront trying to solicit all the facts and opinions without letting the organization know which way you are leaning. And at the end of the day, my job is about making good decisions. What I think at the beginning [of the meeting] is irrelevant. What matters is, did I make a good decision at the end?</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Our government should be looking at it the same way. In trying to figure out the right decision, recognize that there are [other] important points of view that you have to reconcile. Too often it seems like </span><i style="line-height: 1.538em;">not</i><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"> making a decision is [considered] better than a compromise. But that is just not the way it works [in effective government]. There is a reason we have the system we do—to reconcile all those points of view and keep everybody together. With just a little more tolerance overall, we could get a lot further.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Do you see the situation&nbsp;in Washington improving?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">I have always [thought that] the reason we end up with gridlock in Washington is because we have gridlock in the American public. The American public needs to vote for [candidates who say], “I have a point of view, but I need to get something done here, so I am going to work with the other side so that we can reconcile this.”</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">What things make you hopeful for America?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">We have more advantages economically, and more trust in institutions such as our court systems, than any other country in the world. Also, historically, we have in the end made the right decisions. I am fond of Churchill’s line about how you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have exhausted all the alternatives. And that has tended to be pretty true. But…it has to be true again. It will bother me if…my generation [made mistakes] and we are not the guys [who fix them], like all the previous generations did.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Will you ever retire?</span></strong></p>
<p>I love my job. This [role] is the first chance I have had to really build something, and what I want to make sure of is that we set up something that can perpetuate itself. I want to create an institution that keeps evolving and growing.</p>
<hr>
<p class="p1"><strong>The Honeywell Fleet</strong></p>
<p class="p2">Dave Cote flies roughly 500 hours per year on the Honeywell corporate fleet, which operates from Morristown, New Jersey, and Phoenix, Arizona. The company’s flight department employs more than 40 people, including 24 pilots and 10 maintenance technicians, and operates seven aircraft <em>(see Honeywell's Business Aircraft PDF, below)</em>.</p>
<p class="p3">In a typical year, the fleet will fly 3,500 hours and cover approximately 1.5 million miles. It typically transports 5,500 people annually with a dispatch rate of 99.8 percent. The aircraft have also been used for humanitarian relief missions, most recently to transport medical aid and staff to Haiti following the earthquake in 2010. In addition, Honeywell’s engineering and R&amp;D teams routinely interview the flight department’s pilots and technicians to solicit help with the development of products.&nbsp;</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>CEO Files Résumé: Dave Cote</strong></p>
<p>BIRTHDATE: July 19, 1952 (age 62)</p>
<p>POSITION: Chairman and CEO, Honeywell International (2002–present)</p>
<p>PREVIOUS POSITIONS:Chairman and CEO, TRW, a products and services provider to the aerospace, automotive and IT markets (1999–2002); president and COO, GE Appliances (1996–99); various other positions at General Electric (1979–96)</p>
<p>EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, business administration, University of New Hampshire</p>
<p>CHARITIES: Honeywell Hometown Solutions, which focuses on middle-school math and science education, disaster relief, family safety, rebuilding homes and environmental education.&nbsp;<br><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">PERSONAL: Three grown children, five grandchildren. Enjoys time with family at his upstate New York farm, where he hunts and fishes.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Also likes “anything from classical music to rock&nbsp;to the blues to hip-hop” and cheering&nbsp;on his beloved Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.</span></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editorial director <a href="mailto:jenglish@bjtonline.com">Jennifer Leach English</a> interviewed cable TV pioneer Sheila Johnson for our last issue.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>A Poem Cote Lives By</strong></p>
<p>Dave Cote draws inspiration from the poem “If,” by Rudyard Kipling, which hangs in the doorway of his office:</p>
<p><em>If you can keep your head when all about you</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,</em></p>
<p><em>If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;But make allowance for their doubting too;</em></p>
<p><em>If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,</em></p>
<p><em>Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:</em><br><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;</em></p>
<p><em>If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;And treat those two impostors just the same;</em></p>
<p><em>If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,</em></p>
<p><em>Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:</em><br><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>If you can make one heap of all your winnings</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,</em></p>
<p><em>And lose, and start again at your beginnings</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;And never breathe a word about your loss;</em></p>
<p><em>If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;To serve your turn long after they are gone,</em></p>
<p><em>And so hold on when there is nothing in you</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”</em><br><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,</em></p>
<p><em>If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;If all men count with you, but none too much;</em></p>
<p><em>If you can fill the unforgiving minute</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;With 60 seconds’ worth of distance run,</em></p>
<p><em>Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,</em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!</em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pdf field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/honeywells_business_aircraft.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=30490" title="honeywells_business_aircraft.pdf">Honeywell&#039;s Business Aircraft</a></span></div></div></div>Fri, 19 Sep 2014 16:46:11 +0000Jennifer Leach English5186 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/honeywell-chairman-and-ceo-dave-cote#commentsNew Aircraft Preview: Pilatus PC-24http://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/new-aircraft-preview-pilatus-pc-24
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/pc-24_south-africa-copy.jpg?itok=qlu8CM8c" width="100" height="68" alt="" title="A computer-generated image of the Pilatus PC-24 illustrates the sort of places in which the new utility jet will be able to operate." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em><strong>Deliveries are set to begin in 2017 on a model&nbsp; our reviewer considers peerless.</strong></em><br><br />
As kids we all had them: Swiss Army knives. They were the one tool you never left home without—bottle opener, knife, scissors, file, screwdriver, saw, all in one small package that slipped easily into your pocket. Genius. So much so that the concept subsequently was applied to other things with varying degrees of success, from the Veg-O-Matic to the 1960s F-4 Phantom fighter jet, and later to civilian aircraft.<br><br />
Like the Swiss Army knife, the concept of a utility/business jet is not new. FedEx began flying Dassault Falcon 20 twinjets with large cargo doors in 1973 and 30-series Learjets could be purchased with an optional 36-inch-wide front door that continues to make them popular as air ambulances. However, the Falcon and the Learjets need lots of pavement. A decade ago, now-defunct German airframer Grob launched the SPn “utility jet,” which was designed to handle short grass fields. That airplane never made it past the prototype stage.<br><br />
Meanwhile, a new generation of single-engine turboprops had established itself—all with large rear cargo doors. They included the Cessna Caravan, the French Socata TBM and, from Switzerland in 1994, the Pilatus PC-12.<br><br />
Pilatus is known for its turboprops and to date has sold nearly 1,300 PC-12s—a model particularly popular in North America—and hundreds of other types of turboprop military trainers and utility aircraft. Flying since 1959, its PC-6 “Porter” utility hauler gained fame for being able to take off and land in places where airplanes seemingly should not go. Various militaries led by the U.S. Air Force and Navy have taken delivery of 636 T-6 Texan IIs, aircraft manufactured by Beechcraft but based on the Pilatus PC-9 and used for new-pilot training. And while the fortunes of jet makers rise and fall with macroeconomics, Pilatus has been solidly profitable over the years with its durable if somewhat staid product offerings. Plodding along with a line of versatile aircraft for niche buyers willing to pay a premium for Swiss quality, the company has eschewed trendiness at every turn since its founding in 1939, taking its time evaluating new markets and developing products.<br><br />
At Pilatus headquarters in Stans, Switzerland, tradition still looms large. The company&nbsp; hires youngsters right out of high school and shepherds them through a comprehensive apprenticeship program. And more often than not, those workers stay with the company for most, if not all, of their working lives, motivated by job security and ongoing incentives such as regular profit sharing.<br><br />
Pilatus can be generous and patient because it is privately owned, not subject to the instant gratification pressures of a publicly traded enterprise. This approach has facilitated steady growth in revenues, which reached a record $1.15 billion last year on sales of 112 aircraft plus service and support business. More important, Pilatus has booked significant forward orders for its new PC-21 military trainers.<br><br />
For many years before Pilatus unveiled the PC-24, there was scuttlebutt that the company was working on a business jet. The speculation bred both excited anticipation and some trepidation—more than one company has stumbled badly, sometimes fatally, when making the transition from propellers to jets. Pilatus quietly confirmed the jet buzz in 2012 and formally gave it shape in May last year, unveiling the mockup of its PC-24 twinjet in Geneva at the European Business Aviation Convention &amp; Exhibition (EBACE).<br><br />
What appeared from behind the curtain was stunning. Sleekly styled inside and out, it cleverly integrates innovative technologies. Like the PC-12, it features a big rear door—4.1 feet wide and 4.25 feet tall—able to swallow standard cargo pallets. Priced like a light jet at $8.9 million (2017 dollars) and with its operating economics but with the cabin space of a midsize, able to use short grass and dirt runways like a turboprop, and capable of being flown single pilot, the PC-24 so far is without peer.<br><br />
It will be able to take off from runways as short as 2,690 feet at its maximum weight of 17,650 pounds. Power comes from a pair of Williams International FJ44-4A turbofans rated at 3,400 pounds of thrust each. The engines have unique features, including automatic thrust reverse (to 3,600 pounds), passive thrust-vectoring nozzles, quiet power mode in place of an auxiliary power unit to provide ground power, integral pre-cooler to condition bleed air and reduce drag losses and an anti-ice and noise-suppressing inlet. They have a 5,000-hour time-between-overhaul limit and a hot-section overhaul time of 2,500 hours. The engines help propel the PC-24 to 45,000 feet in less than 30 minutes and achieve a maximum cruise speed of 425 knots at 30,000 feet. Range with four passengers is 1,950 nautical miles. Up front, the customized avionics suite dubbed PACE—Pilatus Advanced Cockpit Environment—is based on the Honeywell Primus Apex system and features all the latest advances.<br><br />
The 501-cubic-foot passenger cabin provides more overall space than either the Cessna XLS+ or the Embraer Phenom 300 and has a flat floor. However, cabin height is just 61 inches. The aircraft will be available with seven layout choices that include executive, commuter, combi, medevac, special mission and quick-change configurations; you can also opt for an externally serviced lavatory (forward or aft) and any of several galley setups. The executive configuration features comfortable seating for six to eight. The pressurization system will maintain a sea-level cabin to 23,500 feet and the aircraft has a maximum altitude of 45,000 feet.<br><br />
While the announced schedule for some development programs is the stuff of fiction, Pilatus chairman Oscar Schwenk confidently predicts that the first PC-24 will fly by the end of this year. Three aircraft will be used in the flight-test program. Certification and first customer deliveries are set for 2017.<br><br />
If you’re interested, you might want to place an order now. My guess is that production will be sold out for a long time. <br><br />
<em>Mark Huber (<a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtonline.com">mhuber@bjtonline.com</a>) is a private pilot with experience in more than 50 aircraft models.</em><br><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pdf field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/bjt_2017_pc-14_at_a_glance.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=19823" title="bjt_2017_pc-14_at_a_glance.pdf">2017 Pilatus PC-24 At a Glance</a></span></div></div></div>Wed, 06 Aug 2014 21:17:55 +0000Mark Huber5026 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/new-aircraft-preview-pilatus-pc-24#commentsBalearic Islandshttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/balearic-islands
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/fotolia_49958223_xl.jpg?itok=otbLwdvB" width="100" height="68" alt="" title="Ibiza’s turquoise water creates a calm setting, but the island is known for its extraordinary nightlife. Photo: Fotolia" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em><strong>These Spanish isles are popular with Europeans but not yet with Americans, who are missing out on a Mediterranean paradise.</strong></em></p>
<p>Mention that you’re going to the Balearic Islands and you might get a quizzical look, as the archipelago’s four largest islands are better known by their individual names. Most famous is Mallorca (or Majorca, if you choose the Spanish rather than the Catalan spelling). The others are Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera. They are all part of Spain and lie in the Mediterranean Sea, between the Spanish mainland and Africa.<br />
Tourism sparks the economy and the Balearics rank as popular summertime vacations spots for Spaniards and other Europeans. About two million tourists from the UK visit annually, but relatively few Americans. They’re missing something, because the Balearics offer white sandy beaches, intrinsic beauty, rural retreats and A-list eateries.<br />
Here’s a look at each island and the most memorable attractions you’ll find there.<br /><strong>Culturally Rich Mallorca</strong><br />
Mallorca, the largest isle of the group, offers a wider range of scenery and activities than any other European island. It boasts pine-forested mountains (up to 4,000 feet high), dramatic sloping coastlines, lively fishing ports, ancient monasteries and the historic and continental city of Palma.<br />
An unusual and fun way to sightsee Palma is by Segway. After a quick lesson, you’ll scoot by signs of sprawling wealth in the yacht-filled harbor and take in the famous, grand Gothic Cathedral, La Seu. The cathedral stands on the foundation of the Moorish mosque that was built after the Christian reconquest in 1299. Return later to explore the interior splendor and enjoy a nighttime illuminated view that emphasizes the cathedral’s vast scale and Gothic elegance. At the harbor’s opposite end stand the white, circular battlements of the 14th century Bellver Castle.<br />
My tour proceeded up tree-lined avenues past the Almudaina Palace to the central paseo known as Es Born. The elongated plaza once hosted jousting tournaments and now acts as the hub of Palma’s social life. Residents and visitors dine late into the night in the cafés or sit with a coffee and people watch. Try an ensaimada, a local favorite that consists of a spiral of pastry dusted with sugar. Shoppers enjoy the sleek, sophisticated boutiques at the top of Es Born while art lovers appreciate the world-class Pilar and Joan Miró Fundacion museums.<br />
The village of Valldemossa, in the Tramuntana foothills, holds allure with its 13th century Carthusian monastery, Real Cartuja. It was at this royal sanctuary that scandal-prone French author George Sand and her Polish love Frederic Chopin spent the winter of 1838. Sand wrote the book A Winter in Majorca (an unflattering tome), and Chopin turned out one of his better compositions, “Raindrop” Prelude. The cloisters contain famous works by Miró and Picasso.<br />
A wander through Valldemossa’s tiny lanes and blonde-hued stone houses and shops introduces you to picture-postcard-worthy scenes. Greenery and flowers line each doorway and street, making the town one of the most beautiful in Spain. Look for the traditional symbol of Mallorca’s patron saint, Catalina Thomàs, near the homes’ entrances, placed there to protect them from harm.<br />
One of Mallorca’s most unusual diversions is riding the old-time train from Palma to Sóller. You can sit in a wooden car aboard a narrow-gauge train straight from the pages of an Agatha Christie novel and chug through the mountains. The train stops amid orange and almond groves and allows time to visit antique shops, boutiques and the historic sites. Afterward, take a tram to Sóller’s port and spend some minutes lazing on the little in-town beach.<br />
If you rent a car, a drive to Deià is a must, though you’ll find the hamlet hard to leave. Imagine sitting at the edge of high mountains veering sharply down to the sea and browsing around weathered stone cottages and cobbled lanes. The clay-roofed town has been a haunt of writers and artists ever since the late English poet and author Robert Graves adopted it as his permanent home in the 1930s.<br />
Mallorca also offers some of Europe’s finest golf courses, along with tennis, cycling, horseback riding and water pursuits. And you’ll have plenty of opportunities for such activities, because the island enjoys more than 300 days of sunshine per year. As Gertrude Stein summed up the place, “It’s paradise—if you can stand it.”<br /><strong>Magical Ibiza</strong><br />
Ibiza attracts those looking for lively nightlife and laid-back attitudes. The Moors gave it the distinctive character that led to its name—the White Island. When you look down on the harbor from the top of Ibiza’s ancient fortress, you can see white adobe cube architecture similar to what you’d find in the Greek Isles. And wearing all-white clothing is a chic look called Adlib or Ibiza fashion. The style utilizes natural, gauzy fabrics in harmony with the body’s natural movement.<br />
In the 1960s, hordes of hippies established themselves on Ibiza and their free-spirited attitude remains firmly entrenched. Carefree Bohemian artists, musicians and nonconformists are called to this isle. Boating and water sports remain popular, as is sunbathing. (The island’s southern tip features nudist beaches.)<br />
The old harbor district, Calle de la Virgen, draws a parade of flamboyant characters and tourists who party from dusk till dawn. By day, however, the plaza, marketplace and boutiques are stylish and calm.<br />
Make time to meander through Dalt Vila, the capital city in the upper town of Evissa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site—one of four on the island. A citadel guards the tight corridors and medieval streets that crowd together over the almost circular bay.<br />
Hip beach clubs, like Blue Marlin, lie farther from the city, and are currently the rage. They pull a steady stream of private yachters who drop by to sip champagne on white daybeds or watch one of the regular fashion shows. When evening arrives, the jet set dine on grilled prawn and mango salad, then party into the wee hours with world-renowned DJs and other celebrities.<br />
Es Vedra, the mysterious rock island, famous as Bali Hai in the film South Pacific, stands off the southwestern coast. Some say this rock was the island of the sirens in the Homer epics or is the sunken tip of Atlantis. New-age visitors find the rock empowering due to its magnetic energy and call it a place for transformation.<br />
A hilltop overlook near Es Vedra sums up the ubiquitous glamour that is Ibiza: glistening water, small beaches, big boats and beautiful people.<strong>Unspoiled Formentera</strong><br />
An hour’s ferry ride from Ibiza’s harbor brings you to Formentera, with gin-clear turquoise water and a much slower way of life. Formentera’s topography lies flat, except for a small plateau on the eastern end where you can visit the lighthouse. The island’s beauty and charm radiate from its simplicity, tranquility and undeveloped beaches. Economic expansion is not likely, as laws protect more than 60 percent of the island’s natural landscape.<br />
Flee to Formentera for a summer day trip. Ferry over, rent a Vespa and stroll barefoot along unforgettable white sandy strands. Feast on a Mediterranean slipper lobster and seafood paella before leaving the isle.<br /><strong>Subtle Menorca</strong><br />
Menorca calls to those seeking a genuine retreat. While the majority of tourists are Brits on package holidays, the island extends itself to individuals wishing to create their own itinerary.<br />
Menorca lies strewn with mysterious ruins from its prehistoric past—primarily stone remains that litter much of the countryside. Visiting these rock mounds and giant t-shaped stone monuments, known as taulas, makes a fascinating history lesson. The ruins are linked to the second century B.C. Tayayot culture, although little is known about their original function or purpose.<br />
Sightseers and photographers may want to venture up to Menorca’s 1,150-foot high point, Mont Toro, for a panoramic view. Shoppers should check out the shoe factories, which produce some of the finest of Spain’s famous leather shoes. And everyone should stop into El Paladar to sample Spanish ham, locally made pastries and Menorcan cheeses.<br />
The island’s two main towns are Mahón, the current capital and major port; and Ciutadella, the former Moorish capital at the western end. Those arriving via cruise ship enter Mahón. The British moved the seat of power there in 1722, establishing a naval base in its enormous deep-water harbor. English architectural influence can still be seen through the classical Georgian sash-windowed townhouses around Mahón’s pleasant town squares.<br />
Ciutadella is quite different with slender stone streets lined with whitewashed arches, giving a distinctly Moorish/Andalusian feel. Like Mahón, this town overlooks a harbor, but one used by small pleasure craft and fishermen. The waterfront promenade, lined with restaurants and backed by the remnants of the old city walls, presents an authentic vibe a traveler doesn’t often experience. I found it easy to imagine Menorca’s past while standing in the central plaza admiring old noble houses.<br />
The horse plays a major role in many summer festivals all over the Spanish islands. The most famous takes place in Ciutadella around June 24, the annual Festa de Sant Joan, honoring patron saint John the Baptist. The pageantry follows centuries-old traditions, including dangerous medieval jousting games. The tiny city bursts with frenzied excitement, somewhat akin to the Running of Bulls, but with tuxedoed riders on horseback.<br />
The Balearics can justifiably claim to cater to all tastes. Each of the four islands has a its own flavor and travelers will long remember a vacation here. n</p>
<hr /><p><strong>Traveler Report Card</strong><br /><strong>ACCOMMODATIONS (A):</strong><br />
On Mallorca, consider Castillo Son Vida, a castle hotel originally built in the 13th century, now a Starwood property. It boasts Bay of Palma views, four golf courses, tennis courts, four swimming pools, a spa and a sophisticated bodega-style restaurant called Es Vi. Equally noteworthy are the Orient Express-owned La Residencia, which features twin historic manor houses, gardens dotted with orange trees, outdoor pools, individual villas with private terraces, a spa and Michelin-star dining at El Olivo; and the luxurious Jumeirah Port Sóller Hotel &amp; Spa, which overlooks a fishing village and has two al fresco Spanish restaurants. On Ibiza, try Atzaró, a centuries-old family finca that has been converted into luxurious accommodations and features an excellent restaurant. On Menorca, opt for Torralbenc, a one-time farm that has been renovated into a 22-room luxury hotel with Mediterranean views where guests can take part in cookery classes or spend the day at the nearby beach.<br /><strong>CUISINE (A):</strong><br />
Fresh, often expertly prepared seafood predominates in beach bars, farmhouses and restaurants. Enjoy spectacular local lobster, classic dry-cured Serrano ham and tapas. Mallorca boasts its own wines and Menorca, thanks to the British, produces its own gin. Evening meals don’t begin until 10 p.m.<br /><strong>ACTIVITIES (A):</strong><br />
The islands offer some of Europe’s finest golf courses and water sports. Yachting and sailing are popular. Menorca is notable for horseback riding and Ibiza for nightclubbing.</p>
<hr /><p><strong>Traveler Fast Facts</strong><br /><strong>WHAT IT IS:</strong> The Balearics include four Spanish islands that lie between Africa and the mainland of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea.<br />
LANGUAGE: Both Catalan and Spanish are official languages; many also speak English.<br /><strong>CURRENCY:</strong> Euro.<br /><strong>CLIMATE:</strong> Hot and dry in summer with cooling sea breezes. Winters are generally mild.<br />
GETTING THERE: Most visitors arrive by airplane, but some come via cruise ships and use ferries between islands. The best way to get around is by car, except on Formentera, where cycling or a Vespa are recommended. Palma de Mallorca is Spain’s third-largest airport, with two asphalt runways, the longest of which measures 10,728 feet. Ibiza Airport handles 5.6 million passengers per year on one 9,186-foot-long concrete/asphalt runway. Menorca Airport greets a large number of charter flights carrying tourists, especially during summer. The longer of its two asphalt runways measures 8,366 feet.</p>
<hr /><p><em>Frequent BJT contributor Debi Lander (<a href="mailto:dlander@bjtonline.com">dlander@bjtonline.com</a>) is a Florida-based freelancer specializing in travel stories.</em></p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 06 Aug 2014 22:15:12 +0000Debi Lander5051 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/balearic-islands#commentsAugust in Alaskahttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/august-in-alaska
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/840c_campdenalilodge.jpg?itok=74_BQ76X" width="100" height="68" alt="" title="(Photo: Camp Denali)" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em><strong>It’s almost heaven—and the state is so big that you could spend years exploring it. Here’s where to start.</strong></em><br><br />
Alaska is vast. So vast that it is difficult for me to fully grasp, though I’ve been privileged to explore it a half-dozen times over the years—by beat-up rented truck, camouflage ATV, boat, raft and bush plane. Its 663,000 square miles, if overlaid on a map of the lower 48 states, would stretch from northern Minnesota to the Texas panhandle—with the narrow strip of Alaska locals call “Southeast” reaching Savannah, Georgia, and the chain of islands called the Aleutians stretching to Arizona.<br><br />
August and early September is the perfect time to fly to Alaska. The weather is typically clear and magnificent; meadows of fireweed and lupine and bluebell are in vibrant bloom; blueberries and soapberries are ripe; mosquitoes are less bothersome; and wildlife is abundant and on the move. It’s a sublime season to hike, climb, backpack, bike, expand your photography skills and simply get away and immerse your senses in a stunningly beautiful landscape.<br><br />
Where to experience your adventure? The obvious choice is Denali National Park and Preserve and Mount McKinley, in the Alaskan interior. McKinley, at 22,237 feet, is the tallest peak in North America. Below its granite crags, lingering snowfields and giant glaciers are millions of acres of sweeping tundra; below the tree line are descending bands of upland spruce forest, then a mixture of spruce and poplars in the bottomlands, then low-brush bog.<br><br />
Black bears and the formidable Alaskan brown bears (interior grizzlies) roam the park—especially the soggy muskeg and tundra regions this time of year—gorging on the wild blueberries that are ripening in profusion. You’ll also see caribou, moose, hoary marmots and Arctic ground squirrels, tundra swans, Arctic warblers and pine grosbeaks, ptarmigan and golden eagles—and, if you’re lucky, a herd of Dall sheep on the mountainside, a pack of fleeting gray wolves and the elegant and speedy gyrfalcon.<br><br />
You’ll have lots of daylight to enjoy the summer splendor. On August 1, it starts getting light in Denali National Park at 4:30 a.m. The first rays of sun hit the snow on the eastern slopes of McKinley at 5:34. The sun sets at 10:34 p.m. and twilight ends at 11:38. That’s one long cocktail hour on the deck.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Getting There</strong><br><br />
While there are several air strips in small towns on the edges of the national park, they are gravel and unattended. Nevertheless, you’ll find detailed pilot information about flying around Denali National Park <a href="http://nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/pilotinformation.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;The best bet for private jets is to fly into Anchorage (240 miles to the south) or Fairbanks (120 miles to the north). You can then rent a car and drive to Denali, although once you get there, the 92-mile Denali Park Road (the only road into the park) is open to private vehicles for only 15 miles; shuttle and tour buses can take you the rest of the way. A better strategy is to hop aboard the <a href="http://alaskarailroad.com" target="_blank">Alaska Railroad</a>, sit back and enjoy the breathtaking scenery.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Planning Your Visit</strong><br><br />
The best places to stay are family-run operations called Camp Denali and North Face Lodge. They are at the end of Denali Park Road and are surrounded by six million acres of pristine wilderness, with spectacular views of the snowcapped Alaska Range.<br><br />
Camp Denali is a throwback, a taste of frontier Alaska. The hand-hewn-log lodge dates from 1954, before Alaska was a state, and was one of the first wilderness lodges in the territory. Guests stay in well-spaced private cabins with the lush tundra and taiga right out the door.<br><br />
North Face Lodge is a modern but traditional north-country inn with 15 small, well-appointed rooms, en-suite bathrooms and electricity. It features an inviting central living room with a classic stone fireplace and a full library of books about Alaskan adventure and natural history.<br><br />
The per-person weekly rate for adults at both lodges, based on double occupancy, is $3,885, with shorter stays available. Prices include round-trip transportation from the Denali Park Rail Depot; lodging; all meals; naturalist-guided hikes and other activities; entertaining evening programs; and use of canoes, bikes, fishing tackle and outdoor gear.<br><br />
For information about lodging, visit <a href="http://campdenali.com" target="_blank">campdenali.com</a> or call (907) 683-2290.<br><br />
For information about exploring Denali National Park and Preserve, including maps and seasonal updates, visit <a href="http://nps.gov/dena">nps.gov/dena</a> or call (907) 683-9532.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Thomas Pero (<a href="mailto:tpero@bjtonline.com">tpero@bjtonline.com</a>) is publisher of Wild River Press, the former editor and publisher of </em>Fish &amp; Fly <em>and the author of two books about fly fishing.</em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pdf field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/840-denali-4.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=357265" title="840-denali-4.pdf">Denali map</a></span></div></div></div>Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:12:26 +0000Thomas R. Pero5086 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/august-in-alaska#commentsNotable Fractional Programshttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/notable-fractional-programs
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/flexjet-3.jpg?itok=Lxo7u8rZ" width="100" height="69" alt="Photo: Flexjet" title="Photo: Flexjet" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div><strong>Associated Aircraft Group</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://flyaag.com" target="_blank">flyaag.com</a>, 845-463-6500)</div>
<div>AAG bills its Sikorsky Shares program as the only helicopter fractional provider backed by the aircraft manufacturer. Offers shares in S-76D helicopters.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Clay Lacy Aviation&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://claylacy.com" target="_blank">claylacy.com</a>, 800-423-2904)</div>
<div>ARGUS- and Wyvern-approved operator offers wide assortment of business jets, ranging from super-lights to large-cabin models.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Executive AirShare </strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://execairshare.com" target="_blank">execairshare.com</a>, 866-946-4900)</div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Day-based fractional program operating Embraer Phenom 100 and 300, Citation CJ2+ light jets and Beechcraft King Air B350i twin turboprops in the Central U.S. and Great Lakes/Mid-Atlantic regions. One-eighth share provides 40 days of aircraft usage per year.</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><strong>Flexjet </strong></span></div>
<div>(<a href="http://flexjet.com" target="_blank">flexjet.com</a>, 888-275-8204)</div>
<div>Operates all-Bombardier fleet (Learjet 40XR, 45LXI, 60XR, Challenger 300/350 and Challenger 604/605), and is launch customer for the overdue Learjet 85. FlexShare program lets owners split shares between two aircraft; Versatility Plus program provides flexible usage of hours.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Flight Options </strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://flightoptions.com" target="_blank">flightoptions.com</a>, 877-703-2348)</div>
<div>Offers shares in Nextant 400XT, Cessna Citation X, Embraer Phenom 300 and Legacy 600, and Challenger 300. An iPhone app lets owners schedule trips and view trip status and account information.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>NetJets </strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://netjets.com" target="_blank">netjets.com</a>, 877-356-5823)</div>
<div>The Berkshire Hathaway-owned behemoth operates the fractional industry’s largest, most diverse fleet. All feature NetJets’ interior enhancements. Access to jets in Europe through NetJets Europe. Also offers jet cards.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Nicholas Air</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://nicholasair.com" target="_blank">nicholasair.com</a>, 866-935-7771)</div>
<div>Offers shares in Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop and Phenom 100 and 300 jets for owners in the Eastern U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Shares start at 90 flight hours per year.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>PlaneSense</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.planesense.com" target="_blank">planesense.com</a>, 866-214-1212)</div>
<div>Offers shares in Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprops. Primary operating area includes eastern half of the U.S., southeastern Canada and portions of Mexico, the Bahamas and Caribbean.</div>
</div></div></div>Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:02:33 +0000BJT Staff4921 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/notable-fractional-programs#commentsCompletion and refurbishment centershttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/completion-and-refurbishment-centers-2
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/025g_amecomultifunctional_area-web.jpg?itok=N0mLDBOd" width="100" height="75" alt="Ameco Beijing" title="Ameco Beijing" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div>Global deliveries of turbine business airplanes increased 7.2 percent in this year’s first quarter over the first quarter of 2013, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The jump in deliveries will most likely mean a boost to business at centers that perform aircraft completions and refurbishments and companies that provide interior components.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>With customers wanting more and more luxury, comfort, technology, dedicated work space and amenities, completion centers are customizing interiors with components that only a few years ago would have seemed unimaginable. Recent projects have included a casino, complete with wet bar and gaming tables; a simulated fireplace in a Boeing 787; and a carbon fiber interior in a Challenger 850 with ebony hardwood veneer accents, white leather upholstered seats and divans in eye-catching, contrasting fabrics.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Whether you’re looking for your own airborne fireplace or just a comfortable place to fire up your laptop, the completion and refurbishment facilities listed here can deliver.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<div><strong>328 Support Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment and MRO; focus on airliner executive/VIP conversion</em></div>
<div>Wessling, Germany&nbsp;</div>
<div>+49 8153 88111-2700,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.328support.eu" style="line-height: 1.538em;">328.eu&nbsp;</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>ACH Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Poitiers, France</div>
<div>+33 549 0049 40,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ach-aeronefs.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">ach-aeronefs.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aeria Luxury Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>San Antonio, Texas</div>
<div>(210) 293-6925,&nbsp;<a href="http://sales@aeriainteriors.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">sales@aeriainteriors.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aero Air</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Hillsboro, Oregon&nbsp;</div>
<div>(503) 640-3711,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aeroair.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aeroair.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:ashley.chuinard@aeroair.com">ashley.chuinard@aeroair.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aero Comfort</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>San Antonio, Texas</div>
<div>(210) 340-0177,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aerocomfort.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aerocomfort.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:juanp@aerocomfort.com">juanp@aerocomfort.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aero-Dienst Gmbh</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Nuremberg, Germany</div>
<div>+49 911 9356 559,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aero-dienst.de" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aero-dienst.de</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:joerg.bier@aero-dienst.de">joerg.bier@aero-dienst.de</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aero-Nasch Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Van Nuys, California</div>
<div>(818) 786-5480,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aeronasch.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aeronasch.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@aeronasch.com">sales@aeronasch.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aero Sky</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>San Antonio, Texas</div>
<div>(210) 829-1701,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aerosky.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aerosky.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:bernardfourrier@aerosky.com">bernardfourrier@aerosky.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aerosmith Aviation, Inc.</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Longview, Texas</div>
<div>(903) 643-0898,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aerosmithaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aerosmithaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@aerosmithaviation.com">info@aerosmithaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aerostyl</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Moscow, Russia</div>
<div>+49 5 556 5967,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aerostyl.ru" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aerostyl.ru</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@aerostyl.ru">info@aerostyl.ru</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Airbus Corporate Jet Centre</strong></div>
<div><em>Airbus ACJ aircraft line completion</em></div>
<div>Toulouse, France</div>
<div>+33 5 6719 8854,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.airbuscorporatejetcentre.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">airbuscorporatejetcentre.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:acjc.sales@airbus.com">acjc.sales@airbus.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Air Methods Products Division</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter EMS&nbsp;</em></div>
<div>Completion and refurbishment</div>
<div>Englewood, Colorado</div>
<div>(303) 792-7400,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.airmethods.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">airmethods.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>AirSat One</strong></div>
<div><em>Cabin communications</em></div>
<div>Chesterfield, Missouri &nbsp;</div>
<div>(302) 327-9999,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.airsatone.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">airsatone.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:support@airsatone.com">support@airsatone.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Akridge Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Dallas, Texas</div>
<div>(214) 904-9099,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.akridgeaircraft.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">akridgeaircraft.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:leo@akridgeaircraft.com">leo@akridgeaircraft.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Alpha Omega Jet Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Sulphur Springs, Texas</div>
<div>(903) 438-9922,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aojets.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aojets.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:lori@aojets.com">lori@aojets.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Altitude Aerospace Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Auckland, New Zealand</div>
<div>+64 9 256 3242,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.altitude.ai.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">altitude.ai.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@altitude.ai.com">info@altitude.ai.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Amac Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Basel, Switzerland</div>
<div>+41 58 310 3131,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.amacaerospace.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">amacaerospace.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@amacaerospace.com">info@amacaerospace.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>American Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Carlsbad, California</div>
<div>(800) 550-9276,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.americanaircraftinteriors.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">americanaircraftinteriors.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:service@americanaircraftinteriors.com">service@americanaircraftinteriors.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>ART Maintenance&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Blytheville, Arkansas</div>
<div>(870) 532-0402,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.artmaintenance.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">artmaintenance.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:jjcruz@artmaintenance.com">jjcruz@artmaintenance.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Atlantic Aero</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Greensboro, North Carolina&nbsp;</div>
<div>(336) 235-6143,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.atlantic-aero.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">atlantic-aero.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:mjarrell@atlantic-aero.com">mjarrell@atlantic-aero.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aviation Etcetera</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Dorval, Quebec, Canada</div>
<div>(514) 633-7000,&nbsp;<a href="http://aviationetcetera.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aviationetcetera.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:information@aviationetcetera.com">information@aviationetcetera.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Aviation Interior Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Searcy, Arkansas</div>
<div>(501) 279-2842,&nbsp;<a href="http://jimsullivan@aviationinteriorservices.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">jimsullivan@aviationinteriorservices.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:aviation_int_svcs@yahoo.com">aviation_int_svcs@yahoo.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Avmats</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Chesterfield, Missouri&nbsp;</div>
<div>(636) 532-2674,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.avmats.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">avmats.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:rpvollmar@avmats.com">rpvollmar@avmats.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Avmax Group (Canada</strong>)</div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Calgary, Alberta, Canada&nbsp;</div>
<div>(403) 735-3299,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.avmaxgroup.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">avmaxgroup.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@avmaxgroup.com">info@avmaxgroup.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Avocet Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Sanford, Florida&nbsp;</div>
<div>(407) 585-6201,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:jaime@avocet.aero">jaime@avocet.aero</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>BaySys Technologies</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Melfa, Virginia&nbsp;</div>
<div>(757) 787-7668,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.baysys.aero" style="line-height: 1.538em;">baysys.aero</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:contact@baysys.aero">contact@baysys.aero</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Bizjet</strong></div>
<div>(a Lufthansa Technik company)</div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Tulsa, Oklahoma</div>
<div>(918) 832-7733,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bizjetinternational.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">bizjetinternational.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:bizjet@bizjet.com">bizjet@bizjet.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Bombardier Aerospace&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>(aircraft manufacturer)</div>
<div><em>Bombardier aircraft refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Dallas, Texas</div>
<div>(469) 791-4000</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><em>Completion of Bombardier aircraft</em></div>
<div>Montreal, Quebec, Canada</div>
<div>(514) 855-5000</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><em>Completion of Learjet aircraft</em></div>
<div>Wichita, Kansas</div>
<div>(316) 946-2000,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aerospace.bombardier.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aerospace.bombardier.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Buchanan Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Concord, California&nbsp;</div>
<div>(925) 691-9676,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">buchananaviation.com,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.fly@pacbellnet" style="line-height: 1.538em;">fly@pacbell.net</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Burnet Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Geneva, Switzerland</div>
<div>+41 22 717 0676,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.burnetinteriors.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">burnetinteriors.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@burnetinteriors.com">info@burnetinteriors.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Capital Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Bethany, Oklahoma</div>
<div>(405) 495-1141,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.capitalaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">capitalaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@capitalaviation.com">info@capitalaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Cascade Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada</div>
<div>(604) 850-7372,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cascadeaerospace.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">cascadeaerospace.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@cascadeaerospace.com">info@cascadeaerospace.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Cimarron Aircraft</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>El Reno, Oklahoma&nbsp;</div>
<div>(405) 262-5444,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cimarronaircraft.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">cimarronaircraft.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:cimarronaircraft@aol.com">cimarronaircraft@aol.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Classic Interior Completions</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Willoughby, Ohio&nbsp;</div>
<div>(440) 476-5057,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.classicinteriorinc.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">classicinteriorinc.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:chuck@classicinteriorinc.com">chuck@classicinteriorinc.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Comlux Completion America</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment center, airliner executive/VIP conversion</em></div>
<div>Indianapolis, Indiana&nbsp;</div>
<div>(317) 472-7370,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.comluxaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">comluxaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:refurbishment@comluxaviation.com">refurbishment@comluxaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Constant Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Completions and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Cleveland, Ohio</div>
<div>(216) 265-1050, <a href="mailto:info@constantaviation.com">info@constantaviation.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Dassault Aircraft Services&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>Refurbishment of Falcon aircraft</div>
<div>New Castle, Delaware&nbsp;</div>
<div>(302) 322-7006,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.falconjet.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">falconjet.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Dassault Falcon Jet</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion of green Falcon Jets</em></div>
<div>Little Rock, Arkansas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(501) 372-5254,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.falconjet.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">falconjet.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Dassault Falcon Jet</strong></div>
<div>(aircraft manufacturer)</div>
<div><em>Falcon Jet refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Le Bourget, France</div>
<div>+33 1 4934 2026,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dassault-falcon.com/dfs" style="line-height: 1.538em;">dassault-falcon.com/dfs/</a>, t<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:hierry.salaun@dassault-falcon.com">hierry.salaun@dassault-falcon.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Delta Interior Design</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Sirone, Italy</div>
<div>+39 031 357 4960,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.deltainterior.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">deltainterior.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@deltainterior.com">info@deltainterior.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Duncan Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Battle Creek, Michigan&nbsp;</div>
<div>(269) 969-8400,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.duncanaviation.aero" style="line-height: 1.538em;">duncanaviation.aero</a></div>
<div>Lincoln, Nebraska</div>
<div>(402) 475-2611,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.duncanaviation.aero" style="line-height: 1.538em;">duncanaviation.aero</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>EAD Interior Design</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment, design</em></div>
<div>Saint-Lys, France</div>
<div>+33 562 130 870,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ead-aerospace.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">ead-aerospace.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:pierre.mauger@ead-aerospace.com">pierre.mauger@ead-aerospace.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Eagle Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>West Columbia, South Carolina&nbsp;</div>
<div>(803) 822-5555,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eagle-aviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">eagle-aviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:knelson@eagle-aviation.com">knelson@eagle-aviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Eagle-Creek Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Indianapolis, Indiana&nbsp;</div>
<div>(800) 487-3331,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eagle-creek.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">eagle-creek.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@eagle-creek.com">info@eagle-creek.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>EH Aviation Advisors</strong></div>
<div><em>Cabin Design and Engineering</em></div>
<div>Basel, Switzerland</div>
<div>+ 41 61 535 6396,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aviation-advisors.ch" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aviation-advisors.ch</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:eugn.hartl@aviation-advisors.ch">eugn.hartl@aviation-advisors.ch</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Elisen Technologies</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Montreal, Quebec, Canada</div>
<div>(514) 636-5454,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.elisen" style="line-height: 1.538em;">elisen.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Elliott Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Moline, Illinois</div>
<div>(309) 799-2010</div>
<div><a href="http://www.elliottaviation.com">elliottaviation.com</a></div>
<div><a href="mailto:elliott@elliottaviation.com">elliott@elliottaviation.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Embraer</strong></div>
<div>São Jose dos Campos, Brazil</div>
<div>+55 12 3927 3399,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:silva.ricardo@embraer.com.br">silva.ricardo@embraer.com.br</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Legacy 600/650,&nbsp;</div>
<div>Lineage 1000 completion</div>
<div>São Paulo, Brazil</div>
<div>+55 16 3338 9000</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Phenom 100 and 300 completion</div>
<div>Melbourne, Florida &nbsp;</div>
<div>(954) 359-3487,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.embraer.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">embraer.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Executive Air&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Bismarck, North Dakota&nbsp;</div>
<div>(701) 258-5024,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.executive-air.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">executive-air.com</a><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">,&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:cemone.obert@executive-air.com">cemone.obert@executive-air.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Farnborough Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Farnborough, United Kingdom</div>
<div>+44 1 252 377234,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aircraftinteriors.co.uk" style="line-height: 1.538em;">aircraftinteriors.co.uk</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@aircraftinteriors.co.uk">info@aircraftinteriors.co.uk</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Field Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Mississauga, Ontario, Canada</div>
<div>(905) 676-1540,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fieldav.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">fieldav.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:generalinfo@fieldav.com">generalinfo@fieldav.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Flying Colours</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Peterborough, Ontario, Canada</div>
<div>(705) 742-4688,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flyingcolourscorp.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">flyingcolourscorp.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@flyingcolourscorp.com">info@flyingcolourscorp.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Fokker Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Hoofddorp, Netherlands</div>
<div>+31 622-571-973,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fokkerservices.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">fokkerservices.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>GAL Mena Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Muharaq, Kingdom of Bahrain</div>
<div>+973 17 336 558,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mena.aero" style="line-height: 1.538em;">mena.aero</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@mena.aero">info@mena.aero</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>GAMA Engineering</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Surrey, United Kingdom</div>
<div>+44 1276 857 888,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gamaengineering.co.uk" style="line-height: 1.538em;">gamaengineering.co.uk</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>GDC Technics</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment, focus on airliner executive/VIP conversion</em></div>
<div>San Antonio, Texas</div>
<div>(210) 496-5614,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gdctechnics.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">gdctechnics.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Giotto Air</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter and fixed-wing refurbishment</em></div>
<div>San Jose, California</div>
<div>(408) 799-9095,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.giottoair.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">giottoair.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:carlo@giottoaircraftinteriors.com">carlo@giottoaircraftinteriors.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Global Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Ronkonkoma, New York&nbsp;</div>
<div>(631) 981-8470,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.globalairint.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">globalairint.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:globalairint@aol.com">globalairint@aol.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Greenpoint Technologies</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion &amp; refurbishment,</em></div>
<div><em>focus on airliner executive/VIP conversion</em></div>
<div>Kirkland, Washington&nbsp;</div>
<div>(425) 828-2777,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.greenpnt.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">greenpnt.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:chadley@greenpnt.com">chadley@greenpnt.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Gulfstream Service Centers</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Appleton, Wisconsin (920) 735-7000</div>
<div>Brunswick, Georgia (912) 267-6300</div>
<div>Dallas, Texas (214) 902-7500,</div>
<div>Long Beach, California (562) 420-1818</div>
<div>Savannah, Georgia (912) 965-3000</div>
<div><a href="http://www.gulfstream.com">gulfstream.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Hangar R</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Grand Prairie, Texas</div>
<div>(469) 865-2110,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hangar-r.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">hangar-r.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@hangar-r.com">info@hangar-r.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Helicopter Specialties</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Janesville, Wisconsin&nbsp;</div>
<div>(608) 758-1701,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.helicopterspecialties.net" style="line-height: 1.538em;">helicopterspecialties.net</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@helicopterspecialties.net">info@helicopterspecialties.net</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Heli-One USA</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion</em></div>
<div>and refurbishment</div>
<div>Delta, British Columbia, Canada</div>
<div>(604) 952-7700</div>
<div><a href="http://www.heli-one.ca">heli-one.ca</a></div>
<div><a href="mailto:Michael.Bell@heli-one.ca">Michael.Bell@heli-one.ca</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Helispec</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Brantley, Alabama&nbsp;</div>
<div>(334) 527-0020,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.helispec.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">helispec.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@helispec.com">info@helispec.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Heritage Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Grand Prairie, Texas</div>
<div>(972) 988-8000,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.heritageaviationltd.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">heritageaviationltd.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Hillaero Modification Center</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Lincoln, Nebraska&nbsp;</div>
<div>(402) 474-5074,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hillaero.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">hillaero.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@hillaero.com">info@hillaero.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Iacobucci HF Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Seats, interior components</em></div>
<div>Ferantino, Italy&nbsp;</div>
<div>+39 0775 3925.86,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.iacobucci.aero" style="line-height: 1.538em;">iacobucci.aero</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@iacobucci.aero">sales@iacobucci.aero</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Innotech Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment, aligned with Bombardier Aerospace</em></div>
<div>Montreal, Quebec, Canada</div>
<div>(514) 636-8484,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.innotechaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">innotechaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:tony.rawlinson@innotech-execaire.com">tony.rawlinson@innotech-execaire.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Interior Development Group</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Chamblee, Georgia</div>
<div>(770) 234-9142,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.idgjets.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">idgjets.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:idginc@bellsouth.net">idginc@bellsouth.net</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Interiors By Brazil</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>McGregor, Texas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(254) 848-4980,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.interiorsbybrazil.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">interiorsbybrazil.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@interiorsbybrazil.com">sales@interiorsbybrazil.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>International Jet Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Ronkonkoma, New York&nbsp;</div>
<div>(631) 737-5900,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.intljet.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">intljet.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@intljet.com">info@intljet.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>JCB Aero</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment&nbsp;</em></div>
<div>Auch, France</div>
<div>+33 5 62 07 7171,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.jcbaero.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">jcbareo.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@jcbaero.com">info@jcbaero.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Jet Aviation&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment&nbsp;</em></div>
<div>Basel, Switzerland +41 58 158 4111</div>
<div>Geneva, Switzerland +41 58 158 1058</div>
<div>Singapore +65 6481 53111</div>
<div>St. Louis, Missouri (618) 646-8000</div>
<div><a href="http://www.jetaviation.com">jetaviation.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Jim Miller Aircraft Painting</strong></div>
<div><em>Exterior paint</em></div>
<div>Uvalde, Texas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(830) 278-3375,&nbsp;<a href="http://jmaircraftpainting.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">jmaircraftpainting.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:javier@jmaircraftpainting.com">javier@jmaircraftpainting.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>KD Aviation/Reese</strong></div>
<div><em>Paint shop</em></div>
<div>Robbinsville, New Jersey&nbsp;</div>
<div>(609) 259-4200,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kdaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">kdaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:ken@kdaviation.com">ken@kdaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>King Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Addison, Texas</div>
<div>(972) 248-4886,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kingaerospace.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">kingaerospace.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Kvand Aircraft Interiors&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Minsk, Belarus +375 17 222 5656</div>
<div>Moscow, Russia +7 495 737 9365&nbsp;</div>
<div><a href="http://kvand.com">kvand.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:kvand@kvand.com">kvand@kvand.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>L-3 Platform Integration</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment, twin-aisle airliner conversion</em></div>
<div>Waco, Texas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(254) 867-4244,&nbsp;<a href="http://L-3vipinteriors.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">L-3vipinteriors.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:steven.l.smith@l-3com.com">steven.l.smith@l-3com.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Legacy Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment center</em></div>
<div>Yukon, Oklahoma&nbsp;</div>
<div>(405) 350-2100,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.legacy-aviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">legacy-aviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:kchance@legacy-aviation.com">kchance@legacy-aviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>LifePort Inc</strong>.</div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Woodland, Washington&nbsp;</div>
<div>(360) 225-1212,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lifeport.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">lifeport.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:salexander@lifeport.com">salexander@lifeport.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Lotus Aviation Group</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Fort Lauderdale, Florida</div>
<div>(954) 489-9001,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lotusaviationgroup.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">lotusaviationgroup.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:admin@lotusaviationgroup.com">admin@lotusaviationgroup.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Lufthansa Bombardier&nbsp;Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div>Aviation Services</div>
<div>Completion, refurbishment and MRO</div>
<div>Berlin, Germany</div>
<div>+49 30 8875 4600,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lbas.de" style="line-height: 1.538em;">lbas.de</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Lufthansa Technik</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment and MRO;</em></div>
<div><em>focus on airliner executive/VIP conversion</em></div>
<div>Hamburg, Germany</div>
<div>+49 405 070 5553</div>
<div><a href="http://www.lufthansa-technik.com">lufthansa-technik.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Mecaer Aviation Group</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Borgomanero, Italy +39 0322 83711</div>
<div>Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (267) 341-0130</div>
<div><a href="http://www.mecaer.com">mecaer.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@mecaer.com">info@mecaer.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Metrica Aviation</strong></div>
<div>An Aero-Dienst partner</div>
<div><em>Refurbishment&nbsp;</em></div>
<div>Espelkamp, Germany</div>
<div>+49 5772 596 268,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.metrica-aviation.de" style="line-height: 1.538em;">metrica-aviation.de</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Metro Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion/refurbishment&nbsp;</em></div>
<div>Shreveport, Louisiana</div>
<div>(318) 222-5529,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.metroaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">metroaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@metroaviation.com">info@metroaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>New United Goderich</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Huron Park, Ontario, Canada</div>
<div>(519) 228-6052,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newunitedgoderich.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">newunitedgoderich.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:reception@newunitedgoderich.com">reception@newunitedgoderich.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>OHS Aircraft Service</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Schoenfeld, Germany</div>
<div>+49 30 88 75 4370,&nbsp;<a href="http://ohs-aviationservices.de" style="line-height: 1.538em;">ohs-aviationservices.de</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@ohs-aviationservices.de">sales@ohs-aviationservices.de</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Ormond Aircraft</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Ormond Beach, Fla.&nbsp;</div>
<div>(386) 672-0669</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>PATS Aircraft Systems</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion, refurbishment, focus on&nbsp;</em></div>
<div><em>airliner executive/VIP conversion</em></div>
<div>Georgetown, Delaware&nbsp;</div>
<div>(855) 236-1638,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.patsaircraft.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">patsaircraft.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:Matthew.Hill@patsaircraft.com">Matthew.Hill@patsaircraft.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Penta Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Vancouver International Airport</div>
<div>Richmond, British Columbia, Canada</div>
<div>(604) 273-4649,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.penta-aviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">penta-aviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@penta-aviation.com">info@penta-aviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>PrivateSky Aviation Services</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Fort Myers, Florida&nbsp;</div>
<div>(239) 225-6100,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.privatesky.net" style="line-height: 1.538em;">privatesky.net</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:information@privatesky.net">information@privatesky.net</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>PRO Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Pompano Beach, Florida&nbsp;</div>
<div>(954) 786-0908,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.proaircraftinteriors.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">proaircraftinteriors.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@proaircraftinteriors.com">sales@proaircraftinteriors.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Ranger Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>San Angelo, Texas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(800) 326-5758,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rangeraviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">rangeraviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:johnfields@rangeraviation.com">johnfields@rangeraviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>RAS</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Kent, United Kingdom</div>
<div>+44 1959 576 747,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rascompletions.co.uk" style="line-height: 1.538em;">rascompletions.co.uk</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@rascompletions.co.uk">info@rascompletions.co.uk</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Richmor Jet Center</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>New Windsor, New York&nbsp;</div>
<div>(518) 828-9461,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.richmor.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">richmor.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Robinson Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Coppell, Texas</div>
<div>(469) 635-5050,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.robinsonair.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">robinsonair.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Rose Aircraft Service</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Mena, Arkansas</div>
<div>(479) 392-2551,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.roseaircraft.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">roseaircraft.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Rotorcraft Services Group</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Fort Worth, Texas</div>
<div>(817) 625-0192,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rsgaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">rsgaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:dhubbard@rsgaviation.com">dhubbard@rsgaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>RUAG Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Munich, Germany</div>
<div>+49 8153 30 2244,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ruag.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">ruag.com</a>, reception<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:.munich.businessaviation@ruag.com">.munich.businessaviation@ruag.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Sabena Technics</strong></div>
<div><em>Independent completions and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Paris, France&nbsp;</div>
<div>+31 1 5654 4200,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sabenatechnics.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">sabenatechnics.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:vipcompletions@sabenatechnics.com">vipcompletions@sabenatechnics.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Sabreliner</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Perryville, Missouri</div>
<div>(573) 543-2212,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sabreliner.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">sabreliner.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@sabreliner.com">info@sabreliner.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Sikorsky&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div><em>Helicopter completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Stratford, Connecticut</div>
<div>(800) 496-4337,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sikorsky,com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">sikorsky.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:jim.scanish@keystonehelicopter.com">jim.scanish@keystonehelicopter.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Southstar Aircraft Interiors</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Uvalde, Texas</div>
<div>(830) 278-4108,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.southstarinteriors.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">southstarinteriors.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:dradicke@southstarinteriors.com">dradicke@southstarinteriors.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>SR Technics</strong></div>
<div><em>Independent completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Zurich, Switzerland&nbsp;</div>
<div>+41 58 688 7000,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.srtechnics.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">srtechnics.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:vip@srtechnics.com">vip@srtechnics.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>ST Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Paya Lebar, Singapore&nbsp;</div>
<div>+65 6287 1111,&nbsp;<a href="http://staero.aero" style="line-height: 1.538em;">staero.aero</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:mktg.aero@stengg.com">mktg.aero@stengg.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Stambaugh Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment,</em></div>
<div><em>single- and twin-aisle conversions</em></div>
<div>Brunswick, Georgia&nbsp;</div>
<div>(912) 265-7244,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.stambaughaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">stambaughaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:janicebritton@stambaughaviation.com">janicebritton@stambaughaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Standard Aero</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Tempe, Arizona&nbsp;</div>
<div>(480) 377-3100,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.standardaero.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">standardaero.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:kyle.hultquist@standardaero.com">kyle.hultquist@standardaero.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Standard Aero, Associated Air Center</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion, refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Dallas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(214) 350-4111,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.standardaero.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">standardaero.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:aacsales@associated.aero">aacsales@associated.aero</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>StarPortUSA</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Sanford, Florida&nbsp;</div>
<div>(407) 321-8880,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.starportusa.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">starportusa.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@starportusa.com">info@starportusa.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Starling Aerospace Interior</strong>s</div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Colinbrook, United Kingdom</div>
<div>+44 1753 680-0070,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flysai.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">flysai.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@fly-sai.com">sales@fly-sai.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Stevens Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Greenville, South Carolina (800) 359-7838&nbsp;</div>
<div>Dayton, Ohio (937) 454-3400</div>
<div>Denver, Colorado (800) 824-1938</div>
<div>Nashville, Tennessee (615) 365-2121&nbsp;</div>
<div><a href="http://www.stevensaviation.com">stevensaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:info@stevensaviation.com">info@stevensaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>SureFlight</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Coatesville, Pennsylvania&nbsp;</div>
<div>(484) 718-3136,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sureflight.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">sureflight.com</a><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">,&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sschofield@sureflight.com">sschofield@sureflight.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Textron Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Completion and refurbishment of all Beechcraft and Hawker aircraft</em></div>
<div>Atlanta, Georgia (404) 699-9200&nbsp;</div>
<div>Houston, Texas (713) 567-5000&nbsp;</div>
<div>Indianapolis, Indiana (317) 241-2893</div>
<div>Monterrey, Mexico +52 81-8851-7000</div>
<div>Tampa, Florida (813) 878-4500&nbsp;</div>
<div>Toluca, Mexico +52 722 279 1685&nbsp;</div>
<div>Wichita, Kansas (316) 676-4500&nbsp;</div>
<div>Wilmington, Delaware (302) 561-6900&nbsp;</div>
<div><a href="http://www.beechcraft.com">beechcraft.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Cessna Citation Sevice Centers</strong></div>
<div>Greensboro, North Carolina (877) 859-4476</div>
<div>Milwaukee, Wisconsin (877) 851-5653&nbsp;</div>
<div>Mesa, Arizona (877) 855-4292</div>
<div>Newburgh, New York (877) 851-4793&nbsp;</div>
<div>Orlando, Florida (877) 851-4626</div>
<div>Sacramento, California (877) 851-4763</div>
<div>San Antonio, Texas (877) 821-4728</div>
<div>Wichita, Kansas (877) 857-4428</div>
<div><a href="http://www.cessna.com">cessna.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Taikoo (Taeco) Aircraft Engineering</strong></div>
<div><em>Independent completion and refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Xiamen, People’s Republic of China</div>
<div>+86 592 573 0214,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.taeco.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">taeco.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:petermurton@taeco.com">petermurton@taeco.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Talco Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>San Antonio, Texas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(210) 319-4371,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.talcoaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">talcoaviation.com</a></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Trimec Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Fort Worth, Texas&nbsp;</div>
<div>(817) 626-1376,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.trimecaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">trimecaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:sales@trimecaviation.com">sales@trimecaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Western Aircraft</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Boise, Idaho&nbsp;</div>
<div>(800) 333-3442,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.westair.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">westair.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:servicesales@westair.com">servicesales@westair.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>West Star Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>East Alton, Illinois (800) 922-2421</div>
<div>Grand Junction, Colorado (970) 243-7500</div>
<div><a href="http://weststaraviation.com">weststaraviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:rrneaud@wsa.aero">rrneaud@wsa.aero</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Yingling Aviation</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Wichita, Kansas</div>
<div>(316) 943-3246,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.yinglingaviation.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">yinglingaviation.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:ajackson@yinglingaviation.com">ajackson@yinglingaviation.com</a></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Zodiac Aerospace</strong></div>
<div><em>Refurbishment</em></div>
<div>Plaisir, France</div>
<div>+33 (0) 1 61 34 23 23,&nbsp;<a href="http://zodiacaerospace.com" style="line-height: 1.538em;">zodiacaerospace.com</a>,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><a href="mailto:CDZodiac@zodiacaerospace.com">CDZodiac@zodiacaerospace.com</a></span></div>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 10 Jul 2014 17:16:47 +0000Jane Campbell4961 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/completion-and-refurbishment-centers-2#commentsNotable Jet Card Providershttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/notable-jet-card-providers-0
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/xojet_2_citation_x_-web.jpg?itok=HI9zUvFZ" width="100" height="67" alt="XOJet offers and Elite Access program which guarantees access to the company&#039;s all Wi-Fi-equpped fleet." title="XOJet offers and Elite Access program which guarantees access to the company&#039;s all Wi-Fi-equpped fleet." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div><strong>Air Partner</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.airpartner.com">airpartner.com</a>, 888-247-7278)</div>
<div>Jet cards are sold in 10-hour minimums for flights aboard light, midsize, super-midsize or large-cabin jets from the international charter broker’s vetted operators. Aircraft are a maximum of five years old. Round-trip discounts available. No expiration and fully refundable deposits.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Delta Private Jets</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.deltaprivatejets.com">deltaprivatejets.com</a>, 800-927-0927)</div>
<div>Jet card accesses light, midsize, super-midsize and large-cabin jets from Delta’s managed and owned fleet and network of approved charter operators. No interchange fee or fuel surcharge. Card purchase bestows SkyMiles Diamond Medallion status on Delta Airlines.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Flight Options</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.flightoptions.com">flightoptions.com</a>, 877-703-2348)</div>
<div>The 25-hour JetPASS Select card provides model-specific access to Nextant 400XT, Citation X and Challenger 300 jets from the Flight Options fractional fleet. Aircraft interchange permitted. Card can be split to guarantee access to more than one category of aircraft.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Magellan Jets</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.magellanjets.com">magellanjets.com</a>, 877-550-5387)</div>
<div>Offerings include a card that provides 10 hours of access to Eclipse 500 VLJs and one that guarantees access to Wi-Fi-equipped Gulfstream G450s. Build-a-Card lets buyers select options, from aircraft size and lowered minimum flight time to peak travel surcharge waiver.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Marquis Jet</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.marquisjet.com">marquisjet.com</a>, 877-356-5823)</div>
<div>Aircraft-specific jet card uses NetJets fractional fleet comprising nine models ranging from light to large-cabin jets. X-Country 25-hour card offers 20-percent discount for transcontinental travel on Citation X jets, while Combo 25-hour card splits time between two aircraft types. U.S. members can access NetJets Europe fleet and European clients can access the U.S. fleet.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Nicholas Air</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.nicholasair.com">nicholasair.com</a>, 866-935-7771)</div>
<div>Model-specific Blue Card provides access to Embraer Phenom 100 and 300 and Pilatus PC-12 in increments from 15 to 60 hours. Interchange allowed. No expiration on card.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Sentient</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.sentient.com">sentient.com</a>, 866-602-0051)</div>
<div>A 25-hour card guarantees access to light, midsize, super-midsize and large-cabin jets from Sentient’s network of charter operators. Aircraft category and quality can be chosen on a flight-by-flight basis. One-way and round-trip pricing available.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>XOJet</strong></div>
<div>(<a href="http://www.xojet.com">xojet.com</a>, 877-599-6538)</div>
<div>Preferred Access provides priority access to XOJet’s fleet of Challenger 300 and Citation X jets and Preferred Partner Network of 900 jets. Elite Access guarantees access to XOJet’s all-Wi-Fi-equipped fleet. All deposits refundable.</div>
</div></div></div>Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:34:33 +0000BJT Staff4951 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/notable-jet-card-providers-0#commentsA plain-English guide to aviation insurancehttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/a-plain-english-guide-to-aviation-insurance
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/insurance912.jpg?itok=EZk-cQ2N" width="100" height="80" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Your aircraft represents a wonderful business tool but also one of your largest potential exposures to catastrophic loss—one that could wipe out what you have spent years building. The importance of properly insuring against such loss should be obvious. Here’s a look at the most critical coverage types and clauses.</p>
<p><strong>AIRCRAFT HULL INSURANCE</strong></p>
<div><strong>What it covers:</strong> Physical damage to the aircraft as a result of an accident. The insurer has the option to pay for repairs or to declare a total loss and pay the insured value stated on the policy.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>What it costs:</strong> The annual premium is calculated per $100 of insured value. The higher the insured value, the lower the rate per $100. The hull premium for a midsized jet that isn’t used commercially and has an insured value of $10 million might run $13,000 (13 cents per $100 of insured value), including coverage for war-risk perils. An older version of the same jet insured for $5 million might have a premium cost of $10,500 (21 cents per $100 of insured value).</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Who needs it</strong>: If you have a lien on the aircraft, the bank will require it. Otherwise, you still need it unless you could withstand an uninsured loss.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Advice:</strong> Because this coverage is based on the aircraft’s agreed-to or stated value (not on its cash value), there’s potential for over- or under-insuring, which can be perilous. Consider the 2010 hangar collapse at Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C. Many of the damaged aircraft were significantly over-insured and the unintended result was that insurers were forced to repair airplanes that owners would rather have had declared total losses.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>The proper insured value to carry is the aircraft’s current market value or lien amount, whichever is greater. You should include coverage for war-risk perils, as it offers broad additional protection for a small additional premium. Be sure to review and adjust your coverage annually at renewal.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>AIRCRAFT LIABILITY INSURANCE</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<div><strong>What it covers:</strong> Liability for bodily injury or property damage arising from an accident. The coverage is written on a single-limit-per-occurrence basis (e.g., $100 million per occurrence) and includes defense costs over and above the stated liability cap. &nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>What it costs:</strong> The premium is normally a flat amount based on factors such as the liability limit selected, the pilots flying the aircraft (owner pilot?) and the approved use (Part 91 vs. Part 135). Assuming the midsized jet we used as an example above with insured value of $10 million, approximate annual premiums for ascending liability limits might be $8,500 for $100 million of coverage, $17,000 for $200 million of coverage and $25,000 for $300 million of coverage. These numbers will vary based on the age of the aircraft and the extent to which an underwriter prefers to load more premium on the hull insurance and less on the liability component of coverage. Also, you could face rate surcharges of up to 25 percent, depending on how much the aircraft is used for charter flights.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Who needs it</strong>: Everyone. This is the most important coverage you will buy, as it protects against what is typically your largest ­catastrophic-loss<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">exposure. If your aircraft is involved in an accident that results in injury or property damage, you’ll most likely be sued. Even if the suit is groundless, the coverage will provide a defense.</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Advice:</strong> Purchase as high a limit as you can afford, keeping in mind that you won’t find out whether you bought enough coverage until after a loss. The liability claims you might face if your aircraft were to crash while carrying high-net-worth individuals or flying over a populated area could easily exceed $100 million. For that reason, many flight departments carry $200 million, $300 million or $500 million liability limits. As with hull insurance, coverage for war-risk perils is recommended, because it offers broad additional protection for a small additional premium.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>APPROVED-PILOT CLAUSE&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><strong>What it covers:</strong> Who is authorized under your policy to act as pilot or second in command on your aircraft.</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>What it costs:</strong> While no specific premium is associated with the approved-pilot clause, the overall policy premium correlates directly with the experience level of your pilots and their training protocol. Obviously, the better qualified the pilots and the more stout their recurrent training and safety initiatives, the lower the premium.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Who needs it:</strong> You do, and all policies have an approved-pilot clause. A disproportionate number of claim denials are directly attributable to the fact that pilots flying aircraft did not meet the exact criteria of the pilot clause.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>A classic case involved a Falcon 900 that was forced to abort a takeoff, exiting the runway and causing substantial damage to the aircraft. The temporary copilot that day, although well qualified, had not completed insurance-required training for this make and model aircraft. (Apparently, the training requirement was never communicated to the individual approving the pilots for the aircraft owner.) The insurer denied the claim.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Advice:</strong> If you review only one section of your ­insurance policy annually, this should be the section. This clause varies widely among insurers and your aviation insurance broker negotiates the language, so if you aren’t represented by an experienced broker, you’re at a distinct disadvantage here. You want the broadest approved-pilot clause possible. When you receive your insurance policy annually, be sure to provide your flight department and any other pertinent parties with a copy of this section along with any evidence of required recurrent training.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Be advised that almost without exception, the&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">primary pilots of all turbine/jet aircraft will have to complete annual recurrent training at an insurer-approved facility, whether or not such training is stipulated in the policy. Moreover, the training is critical, since pilot error causes about 85 percent of aircraft accidents. It amazes me when I see clients not blink an eye at a $100,000 maintenance bill, but squabble over spending $15,000 to $20,000 to train the pilots who represent their best opportunity to increase operational safety.</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">APPROVED-USE INSURANCE</span></strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<div><strong>What it covers:</strong> Allowable reimbursement by non-owners who use your aircraft.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>What it costs:</strong> As with the approved-pilot clause, no specific premium is assigned to the approved-use clause but as you’d expect, commercial operations face higher premium rates than non-commercial ones.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Who needs it:</strong> You do, and all policies contain an approved-use clause. It’s a sleeper, though, because most owners erroneously assume they can do almost anything they want with their aircraft.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Advice:</strong> Like the approved-pilot clause, the approved-use endorsement varies widely among insurers, each of which has several versions it can use, some much broader than others. Your insurance broker negotiates the wording so, again, if an experienced aviation broker doesn’t represent you, you’re at a disadvantage.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>When subsidiary companies, business associates or friends use your aircraft, make sure your broker knows exactly what you’re receiving as compensation—whether it’s money, a case of wine or a week at someone’s vacation home, it all converts back to the almighty dollar. If your aircraft is involved in an accident and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration determines that due to reimbursement you received, the flight was actually commercial in nature and should have been operated under Part 135 charter regulations, your insurance claim could be denied.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<hr>
<p><strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Other Coverages and Clauses You Might Want</span></strong></p>
</div>
<div><strong>Broad Form Named Insured Clause</strong>. This extends coverage to subsidiary or affiliated companies of the named insured and other companies the named insured’s controls or actively manages.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Contractual Liability.</strong> This coverage insures to some extent, against liability you assume under contract. Be vigilant to submit any contracts or agreements related to your aircraft to your insurance broker. This includes hangar agreements, dry-lease, time-share and interchange agreements, purchase/lease agreements and leased/loaner engine agreements.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Non-Owned Aircraft Liability:</strong> This extends coverage under your policy for your use of non-owned aircraft, including chartered and rental aircraft. Review any known or anticipated use with your insurance broker.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Diminution of Value.</strong> This reimburses the aircraft owner for depreciated value caused by damage history due to a physical-damage claim. It is rarely purchased due to the cost and the complexity of the formula used to determine coverage. [For more on this coverage, see the Taxes, Laws and Finance column in our June/July 2014 issue.—Ed.]</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Garagekeepers Liability</strong>. This covers you for damage resulting from your negligence to a non-owned auto in your care, custody or control (think cars in hangars). —<em>S.H.</em></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<hr>
<div><strong>HULL AND LIABILITY INSURANCE BROKERS</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Air-Sur, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>Ormond Beach, Florida</div>
<div>Thomas K. Coughlin, (386) 672-6210</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>AirSure Ltd., LLC</strong></div>
<div>Golden, Colorado</div>
<div>Bill Behan, (303) 526-5300</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>AON Risk Services, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>New York, New York</div>
<div>Tracy Toro, (212) 479-3233</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>AIS Gallagher</strong></div>
<div>Las Vegas</div>
<div>Brad Meinhardt, (702) 647-2333</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Chartis Aerospace&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>Insurance Services, Inc.</div>
<div>Atlanta</div>
<div>Linda Parent, (404) 249-1800</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Falcon Insurance Agency, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>Kerrville, Texas</div>
<div>John Allen, (830) 257-1000</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Crystal &amp; Company, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>New York, New York</div>
<div>Louis M. Timpanaro, Jr., (212) 504-5850</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Hope Aviation Insurance, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>Columbia, South Carolina</div>
<div>Stuart Hope, (800) 342-4673</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>John F. Throne &amp; Co.</strong></div>
<div>Seattle</div>
<div>Brint Smith, (206) 622-3636</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Insurance Office of America</strong></div>
<div>Aerospace Division<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div>
<div>Atlanta<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div>
<div>John C. Averill, (770) 308-2398</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>L.L. Johns &amp; Assoc., Inc.</strong></div>
<div>Waterford, Michigan</div>
<div>Stephen Johns, (248) 666-4400</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Marsh USA, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>Atlanta</div>
<div>Nancy P. Gratzer, (404) 995-2480</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<div><strong>NationAir Insurance Agencies, Inc.</strong></div>
<div>W. Chicago, Illinois</div>
<div>Jeff Bauer, (630) 584-7552</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>PIM Aviation Insurance&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>Wichita, Kansas</div>
<div>Timothy K. Bonnell, Sr.</div>
<div>(316) 942-0699</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Travers Aviation Insurance</strong></div>
<div>St. Louis</div>
<div>Glen Travers, (800) 888-9859</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc.</strong></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Atlanta</span></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Dean Anderson, (404) 923-3665</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong style="line-height: 1.538em;">Willis Global Aviation</strong></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">New York, New York</span></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Melissa Harder, (212) 915-8213</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><strong>Wings Insurance Agency</strong>&nbsp;</span></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Eden Prairie, Minnesota</span></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Steve Bruss, (952) 942-8800</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><strong>TITLE INSURANCE AGENT</strong></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong style="line-height: 1.538em;">Global Aviation Title Insurance Agency</strong></div>
<div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Oklahoma City, Oklahoma</span></div>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Frank L. Polk, (405) 552-2201</span></div>
</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div><em><strong><a href="mailto:shope@bjtonline.com">Stuart Hope</a>, co-owner of Hope Aviation Insurance, has been in the business since 1979.&nbsp;</strong></em></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 08 Jul 2014 17:32:49 +0000Stuart Hope4901 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/a-plain-english-guide-to-aviation-insurance#commentsWhat bizjet manufacturers have in store for youhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/what-bizjet-manufacturers-have-in-store-for-you
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/flaris-web.jpg?itok=n7ep-aNn" width="100" height="67" alt="Flaris LAR 01" title="Flaris LAR 01" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em><strong>A look at the newly designed models set to enter service during the next few years.</strong></em></p>
<p>New-jet programs come in two flavors: completely clean-sheet-of-paper designs and updates of existing models. This article deals strictly with the former. The category is well populated, but mostly with midsize and super-midsize jets—a reflection of continuing softness in the entry-level sector and the rarefication of the large-jet and bizliner field. Bombardier, Cessna and Embraer all have models under development in what can be called the greater middle market, the most attractive category for fractional programs and other fleet customers. The large-jet business is seeing some action, although less of it: new projects are under way at Bombardier and Dassault and the rumor mill is running full tilt regarding Gulfstream programs building on the larger-cabin cross-section introduced by the G650.</p>
<p>The new midsize aircraft all evidence a renewed focus on passenger comfort, with improved seating, larger windows and flat-floor cabins. In addition, all categories are moving toward touchscreen avionics in the cockpit and more fuel-efficient engines, which translate into better range and time-to-climb numbers. Winglet design is being revised with more swooping shapes.</p>
<p>Manufacturers also are changing the way they sell aircraft, with greater focus on simplified maintenance and life-cycle costs and hourly maintenance programs that are wrapped into the purchase price. This should increase reliability across the board and inch dispatch rates up to near 100 percent. Development and certification schedules on select programs continue to fall behind, the victims of financial challenges at some companies; technical difficulties integrating new technologies into airframe, avionics and flight controls; and certification slowdowns attributable to budgetary and other constraints at both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency.</p>
<p>All that said, nearly all aircraft now under development have one thing in common: a near-perfect balance of versatility, performance, comfort and costs. The big differentiator will be customer service and support.</p>
<p><strong>LIGHT SINGLE ENGINE</strong></p>
<p><strong>Cirrus Vision SF50:</strong> Cirrus anticipates late 2015 certification for its long-delayed SF50 single-engine jet. It flew the first conforming prototype in March and will add two more to the flight-test program. The conforming test aircraft differ just a little from the non-conformal, proof-of-concept prototype the company has flown since 2008: they feature a slightly longer nose and higher fuselage loft than the model currently flying. The five-plus-two seating layout is retained but Cirrus has added options such as weather radar, a “relief station” and upgraded leathers. The company already is beginning to gear up for production by adding factory robotics and a fuselage lay-up mold for the all-composite aircraft. Cirrus has received deposits for more than 500 of the jets.</p>
<p><strong>Flaris LAR 01:</strong> The Poland-based aviation newcomer unveiled its five-seat, single-engine light jet at the Paris Air Show last summer and a prototype is expected to fly later this year, about six months behind the initial development schedule. The eye-catching Flaris features rear-hinged main cabin doors reminiscent of 1960s Lincoln Continental cars, detachable wings and stabilizers, a fuselage fuel tank, electric deicing and an in-the-nose whole-aircraft ballistic parachute.</p>
<p><strong>LIGHT TWIN ENGINE</strong></p>
<p><strong>HondaJet:</strong> Honda’s lengthy path to market appears to be nearing an end with certification of its light twin now expected late this year, following delays in the development and redesign of its GE Honda HF120 engines. Honda claims the aircraft has 15 to 20 percent greater fuel efficiency and higher speed than competing models. The five- to six-passenger jet will be certified for single-pilot operation. The HondaJet mates a carbon-fiber composite fuselage to metal wings, and the positioning of the engines on over-the-wing pylons means larger cabin volume and generous passenger legroom.</p>
<p>A fleet of conformal test aircraft (which look almost identical to the prototype that has been flying since 2003) is racking up hours. More than 1,000 employees are working at Honda’s massive 83-acre Greensboro, North Carolina campus, which has 600,000 square feet under roof and should be able to turn out 70 to 100 aircraft per year when production is fully ramped up. The first two years of production are already sold out.</p>
<p><strong>LIGHT MIDSIZE</strong></p>
<p><strong>Cessna Citation Latitude:</strong> Announced in 2011, the light midsize Citation Latitude first flew in February this year and is slated to enter service next year. The Latitude is the first Citation with a flat floor (no dropped aisle), and the cabin is 27.5 feet long, 72 inches tall and 77 inches wide. The standard seating arrangement accommodates passengers with a forward, dual-seat, side-facing divan, a club-four grouping of single seats and two more single seats aft of that. The Latitude features Garmin G5000 avionics and the wireless fiber-optic Clairity cabin-management system. The G5000 has three 14-inch LCD primary and multifunction displays and four touchscreen control panels. It offers all the latest safety equipment, including synthetic vision, electronic charts and Garmin’s Safe Taxi airport charts. The Clairity system allows completely wireless control of cabin functions. It is compatible with personal devices.</p>
<p>Like its predecessors, the Latitude has good short-runway capability; it will easily be able to use runways shorter than 4,000 feet under almost any load condition.</p>
<p><strong>Embraer’s Legacy 450:</strong> Embraer’s Legacy 450 medium light twinjet made its first flight last December; certification is expected late next year or early 2016. The shorter sibling of the Legacy 500 midsize, the 450 shares many of its systems and characteristics, including engines, avionics, fuselage diameter and fly-by-wire flight controls. The aircraft pressurization system keeps cabin altitude at 6,000 feet at the 450’s maximum cruising altitude of 45,000 feet. The 678-cubic-foot cabin offers seating for seven to nine passengers. Cabin management and IFE are courtesy of Honeywell’s HD Ovation Select system, which allows for control of entertainment, communications, lights, temperature, window shades and more via drink-rail-mounted units, wireless handheld remotes or a galley touchscreen. The system can interface with high-speed satellite communications and a variety of consumer electronics.</p>
<p>The cockpit offers Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics. The four large active-matrix LCDs in the panel connect the pilots with synthetic enhanced vision with an optional head-up display; electronic charts, maps, graphical weather depiction from an intuitive MultiScan weather radar system that sees up to 300 miles out; and an airport surface-management system that minimizes the chances of ground mishaps. Fusion can grow to accommodate future technology add-ons such as voice recognition, surface guidance and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, the future of air traffic control. <strong>Pilatus </strong></p>
<p><strong>PC-24:</strong> Pilatus’s dramatic entry into the jet market last year, the PC-24, combines light-jet operating economics with super-midsize-jet capabilities and comfort and is aimed at more conventional offerings from Cessna and Embraer. Like the company’s iconic PC-12 single-engine turboprop, the PC-24 retains an aft cargo door and the capability to operate from short, unpaved and unimproved fields. The new Williams engines have unique features, including automatic thrust reverse, passive thrust vectoring nozzles, quiet power mode in place of an auxiliary power unit to provide ground power, integral pre-cooler to condition bleed air and reduce drag losses and an anti-ice and noise-suppressing engine inlet.</p>
<p>Up front, the customized avionics suite dubbed Pace—Pilatus Advanced Cockpit Environment—is based on the Honeywell Primus Apex and Epic systems and features all the latest advances. The voluminous passenger cabin provides more overall space than either the Cessna XLS+ or the Embraer Phenom 300 and has a flat floor, which means less headroom in the aisle. The aircraft will come with seven interior alternatives for layouts that include executive, commuter, combi and quick-change configurations as well as options for an externally serviced lavatory, either forward or aft, and galleys. Pilatus expects first flight later this year and certification in 2017.</p>
<p><strong>MIDSIZE</strong></p>
<p><strong>Bombardier Learjet 85:</strong>&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Bombardier’s new transcontinental, all-composite light super-midsize model made its first flight in April. Thanks to composite construction, the 85 weighs only one third more than the considerably smaller Learjet 60XR and needs just 20 percent more thrust, can fly 495 nautical miles farther on a comparable load of fuel and has a slightly higher top cruise speed.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Several configurations will be available, including one with eight single executive seats in a double-club layout and one with six single seats and a three-place divan. The single seats are pitched at 30 inches and recline into full-berthing positions. This longer-legged Learjet also features a full galley and an aft cabin lavatory. Like several other contemporary cabins, the one in the 85 incorporates larger passenger cabin windows, 12 by 16 inches each, and more monolithic, streamlined headliners and sidewalls. Bombardier has tapped Lufthansa Technik to provide the cabin-management system; Rockwell Collins for a three-screen Pro Line Fusion avionics system with synthetic vision; and Pratt &amp; Whitney Canada for new PW307B turbofan engines.</p>
<p><strong>Cessna Citation Longitude:</strong>&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">The biggest Citation yet is a stretched and longer-legged variant of the Citation Latitude. Scheduled to enter service in 2017, it shares the Latitude’s avionics, cabin-management system, seats, windows and fuselage cross-section, but is nine feet longer and turns to Snecma’s new Silvercrest engines for power. Cessna has selected the Garmin G5000 for the Longitude, employing the same three-screen “touch control” avionics architecture that the company is using on the Latitude. The cabin-management system will build on the Clairity equipment.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>The aircraft seats eight passengers in a cabin featuring a large forward galley and an aft lavatory with vacuum-flushing toilet. The forward cabin may include a crew lavatory as well as a third crew/flight-attendant seat. Like the Latitude’s interior cross-section, the Longitude’s is 72 inches tall and 77 inches wide. The forward club-four configuration is capacious and the single executive seats are full-berthing. There is room for another club-four in the aft cabin or a three-place divan, certified for takeoff and landing, opposite an entertainment center with large flat-screen monitor.</p>
<p>The Longitude has limited, computerized fly-by-wire capabilities for controlling the rudder, spoilers and brakes (“brake-by-wire”). Its 30-degree swept wing incorporates leading-edge slats, winglets, centrifugal ailerons and five speed-brake/spoiler panels per side. All this combines to give the aircraft good short-field capabilities under most load conditions.</p>
<p><strong>Embraer Legacy 500:&nbsp;</strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">This is the larger companion to the Legacy 450. Entry into service is expected later this year. Compared with the 450, the 500’s fuselage is six feet longer, and range with IFR reserves increases to 2,800 nautical miles with eight passengers. The 500 will carry up to 12 passengers in a cabin that is near super-midsize, measuring 26 feet, 10 inches long; six feet, 10 inches wide; and six feet tall.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Customers can choose between a large, well-appointed forward galley and opposite storage or a single, side-facing seat ideal for a cabin attendant. Or they can have a side-facing, two-place divan opposite a small refreshment center. The wet galley features hot and cold water, four gallons of potable water, crystal storage and an ice drawer, compartments for china and silverware, 110V power outlet and optional video monitor and espresso maker. Passengers will be able to bring more luggage, skis and golf clubs than they could fit in almost any other midsize or super-midsize jet: the 500 offers 150 cubic feet of baggage space—110 in the external compartment and another 40 in the closet that can be accessed through the lavatory.</p>
<p><strong>LARGE</strong></p>
<p><strong>Dassault Falcon 5X:</strong> Dassault launched its long-anticipated large twinjet last year and expects it to enter service in 2017. The 5X features an expanded fuselage diameter of nearly 8.9 feet—the widest ever for a Falcon—plus fly-by-wire controls, new Snecma Silvercrest engines and advanced flight-control surfaces on the wings. It has a range of 5,200 nautical miles with eight passengers. Dassault claims that it is 50 percent more fuel efficient than current, comparable aircraft on a 1,500-nautical-mile mission.</p>
<p><strong>Dassault Falcon 8X:</strong> Dassault Aviation has unveiled its Falcon 8X trijet, a significant step up from the popular 7X. A longer cabin offers more layout possibilities, including the option to install a large aft lavatory with a shower and a crew rest area in the front section and still have a comfortable three-lounge cabin in between. The 8X also offers greater range—6,450 nautical miles. From Los Angeles, Beijing is within reach. From New York, the 8X can travel nonstop to Dubai. The first flight is planned for early next year, with deliveries beginning in the second half of 2016. The model will reportedly sell for about 10 percent more than the 7X, which would put the price in the neighborhood of $58 million. Direct operating costs are estimated at $4,075 per hour.</p>
<p><em><a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtonline.com?" target="_top">Mark Huber </a> reviews new and used aircraft for </em><strong>BJT. </strong><em>Thierry Dubois contributed reporting to this article.</em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pdf field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="file"><img class="file-icon" alt="" title="application/pdf" src="/modules/file/icons/application-pdf.png" /> <a href="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/bjt_new_bizjet_models.pdf" type="application/pdf; length=20403" title="bjt_new_bizjet_models.pdf">BJT Future Bizjet Models chart</a></span></div></div></div>Tue, 08 Jul 2014 15:00:04 +0000Mark Huber4886 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/what-bizjet-manufacturers-have-in-store-for-you#commentsThat new-airplane smellhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/that-new-airplane-smell
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.bjtonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/928-happyjet_final.jpg?itok=9kilc3lG" width="100" height="69" alt="Happy Jet Illustration: John Lewis" title="Illustration: John Lewis" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="p1"><span class="s1">When you’re buying a jet, months</span> of work culminate the moment you sign the papers. You’re finished with research, analysis, due diligence and inspections. You’ve had the last of your consultations with brokers, attorneys, accountants, pilots and mechanics. The marathon has been run and now you can reap the rewards.</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s2">Beau Schweikert, a corporate CFO, has worked for clients on four jet closings—both sales and acquisitions—the latest with Mesinger Jet Sales, a Boulder, Colorado-based brokerage firm. That deal was an odyssey that began with the client seeking to transition from occasional use of jet cards to purchase of a super-midsize bizjet, but then late in the process concluding that only a long-range, large-cabin model would fit the bill.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s3">“This was their first [ownership aircraft] transaction and they were able to fly transcontinental the very next day,” says Schweikert. “The principals were very pleased.” That’s likely an understatement.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p2">No matter the size of the airplane, buying your first is one of those sweet life moments to be savored. And the manufacturers and completion centers know it, often reserving luxury offices in their plants for customers to finish the paperwork and then presenting the airplane in a surgically clean acceptance hangar replete with the buyer’s name on a banner, a photographer, champagne and a gourmet buffet or some variation on that theme.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">Once, a brand-new, small two-seat trainer was delivered to me. Knowing my affinity for the Green Bay Packers football team, the ferry pilot and his cohorts did their best to make the moment memorable: they left a pair of foam-rubber cheeseheads, the preferred headgear of diehard Packer-backers, on the pilot seats. (The year before, a couple of Packer fans had crashed their airplane while returning from a game and had credited their survival to donning their cheeseheads prior to impact. This became the subject of considerable&nbsp; chortling in hangars throughout the United States.)&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">I saw the cheeseheads and doubled over in laughter. But after I recovered, I stepped back and admired the airplane: I had selected the options, the color scheme, everything about it. I had personalized it.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">In the months that followed, I would fly the pants off it, visiting wonderful places unknown, meeting fascinating people, doing business deals in a compressed time space impossible with any other kind of vehicle. The airplane opened doors for me, both personally and professionally, and I was treated to some amazing vistas along the way. I was thrilled.</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s3">The feeling is the same, whether you are in a small piston airplane or the biggest bizjet, whether you are in the cockpit or enjoying the fruits of your labor in the cabin: the smell of the leather, the feel of the seats, the grain patterns in the veneer, the quality of the cabin-management electronics—all in your favorite colors, fabrics and patterns and with your preferred options.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s3">Here is the emotional security of having all your favorite stuff on board—food, drink, music and movies; the convenience of no-drama wardrobe changes; and the joy of skipping the drudgery and wasted time that flying the airlines entails. When you land, they roll out the red carpet and the rental car or livery service stands at the ready.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s2">Nothing else really compares. And when you’re not flying in the airplane, there’s likely a model of it somewhere in your office or a photo of you taking the keys on delivery day. There they are, taunting you, reminding you how much you’d rather be out of that office flying—somewhere, anywhere—in your own aircraft.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p2">Take a deep breath: it’s that new-airplane smell.</p>
<p class="p3"><i><a href="mailto:mhuber@bjtonline.com" target="_top">Mark Huber</a> is a private pilot with experience in more than&nbsp;50 aircraft models.</i></p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 09 Jul 2014 15:30:01 +0000Mark Huber4916 at http://www.bjtonline.comhttp://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/that-new-airplane-smell#comments